Podcasts in the U.S. Midterms, SiriusXM Q3 Report, & More

Podcasts in the U.S. Midterms, SiriusXM Q3 Report, & More

November 2, 2026

Inside SiriusXM’s Growing Podcast Empire: MrBallen, Alex Cooper And YouTube by Matt Craig

SiriusXM’s CFO cited 20% growth in podcast advertising revenue on the Q3 earnings call, Forbes reports. The company’s third quarter results show revenue down slightly to $2.15 billion and net income up 7% to $317 million, with full-year guidance raised by $25 million. Ad revenue in the Pandora and Off-Platform segment, which includes podcasting, grew 1% to $419 million as streaming music advertising softened. Podnews notes that SiriusXM does not say how large its podcast ad business is, while Forbes cites analyst estimates of just over 10% of revenue. Scott Greenstein told Forbes that podcast video and social ad revenue has nearly tripled this year, a figure Podnews reports as more than doubled. Forbes frames the growth as a strategy choice: SiriusXM has kept its shows mostly on YouTube and other ad-supported platforms, while Spotify and iHeart have signed slate deals with Netflix and other streamers. On PodBiz, SiriusXM Media and AdsWizz’s Molly Ponzo explains how the company packages this inventory.

Scalable: The ‘Everything Election’ by Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg

Kaya Yurieff and Jasmine Enberg argue that no single channel will define the 2026 midterms the way podcasts were said to define 2024. They call it the “everything election,” with voters getting information from YouTube, cable news, Instagram, newsletters and more. The authors also question how much the “podcast election” label ever meant for actual votes. In The Podcast Landscape 2026, 26% of likely voters who consume podcasts weekly say a candidate’s appearance could make them more likely to vote for that candidate, and 8% say less likely. Yurieff and Enberg suspect podcasts’ political power is shifting from long conversations toward clipping. Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman reports in Soundbite that the Trump administration continues to host podcasters inside the White House.

PodcastOne (NASDAQ:PODC) Board of Directors Forms Special Committee and Intends to Retain Financial Advisor Following Inbound Strategic Interest

PodcastOne says multiple strategic parties have approached it about a potential acquisition. The company is in discussions with each of them. Its board has formed a special committee of independent directors to oversee the process. PodcastOne also intends to retain an investment banker to evaluate these and other options. The board says the stock price does not reflect the value of the business. It points to a #6 ranking among U.S. podcast publishers on Podtrac and more than 1 billion monthly impressions. Executive chairman Robert Ellin promises a competitive process. PodcastOne cautions that there is no assurance of a transaction. Podnews reports that a shareholder had sent the company a letter urging it to hire an investment bank or strategic advisor. Shares rose around 50% on the news to about $2.59. They traded above $5 in May.

…as for the rest of the news: