The Record: Q3 2026 U.S. audio listening trends
Nielsen’s quarterly report draws on Edison Research’s Share of Ear data for Q3 2026. U.S. consumers spend 3 hours and 55 minutes a day with audio. Radio takes 62% of daily ad-supported audio time among adults 18 and older. Podcasts take 21%. Ad-supported streaming audio follows at 15%. The gap narrows among younger listeners. For ages 18 to 34, radio holds 42% and podcasts hold 33%. Podcasts account for 27% among ages 25 to 54 and 16% among those 35 and older. Radio reaches 92% of U.S. adults each month, or more than 242 million people. About 65% of adult radio listening happens away from home. Nielsen says radio and podcasts together make up 83% of the ad-supported audio day. The analysis does not include listening to music or music videos on YouTube.
Podcast advertising benchmarks: Q3 2026
Magellan AI analyzed 102,059 podcast episodes for its latest quarterly benchmark report. Podcast ad spend grew 18% year over year in Q3. Average ad load rose to 8.86%, up from 8.75% in Q2. Podnews notes it was 8.34% a year ago. That works out to roughly 20 more seconds of ads in a typical hour-long show. Grocery spend increased 42%, with Whole Foods Market, Walmart and Instacart topping the list. Seven of the top 10 spenders in Q3 were also top spenders in Q2. The report is free to download with registration. Magellan AI will cover the standout figures in a 20-minute webinar on November 23 at 12 p.m. ET.
Triton Digital’s Spreaker commits to fighting unauthorized podcast copies
Triton Digital President and CEO John Rosso responds to a Podnews investigation into copied shows on Spreaker. Rosso says duplicate feeds are a small fraction of the podcasts on the platform and many are authorized. He acknowledges that a limited number are unauthorized copies. Spreaker will now email the owner listed on the original feed whenever a show is imported. Before publication, it will check the Apple and Podcast Index APIs to see whether a feed already exists elsewhere. Any feed flagged as a possible duplicate will need an extra approval step before it can be monetized. Sign-up and monetization emails will carry added reminders of the platform’s rules. Spreaker aims to have the changes in place by the end of the year. Podnews has also drafted a Code of Practice for podcast migrations. Spreaker, RSS.com, Transistor and RedCircle have committed to follow it.
Spotify Brings Personalized Podcast Picks To United Airlines Seatback Screens
United Airlines passengers can now log into their own Spotify accounts on seatback screens. That brings their saved podcasts, video episodes, music, audiobooks and personalized recommendations on board. Passengers connect by joining United’s WiFi and scanning a QR code on the screen. No WiFi pass or MileagePlus login is required. Both Free and Premium users can access it. The feature is rolling out first on aircraft equipped with Starlink, with more planes scheduled through 2027. It expands a June 2025 agreement that brought a curated Spotify channel to more than 130,000 United seatback screens. That channel remains available with 450 hours of programming.
…as for the rest of the news:
- Mondo Metrics’ Nick Cicero measures the gap between YouTube public views and engaged views across 1,139 channels. Podcasts show the smallest lift at 1.61x, and he argues host-read ads should settle on engaged views.
- Transistor now styles its RSS feeds with CSS so they stay readable in a browser. Chrome is removing XSLT support this month.
- Headliner adds a social calendar and post scheduling tool for Headliner Pro users.
- Cumulus Media’s Pierre Bouvard opens a masterclass on how advertising works. He argues brand building is responsible for most revenue and profit growth.
- SiriusXM names Anjali Sud CEO, effective January 1, 2027. The Tubi CEO succeeds Jennifer Witz, who stays on as an advisor through the end of 2027.
- Steve Pratt and Cameron Uganec launch Like Show Business, a company making original social shows with brands.
