THIS THURSDAY, June 26th, at 2:00 p.m. EST Sounds Profitable and SiriusXM Media / SiriusXM Podcast Network are teaming up for the free webinar Unlock the Power of Purpose-Driven Podcasting. A presentation of data from The Advertising Landscape focusing on two of the industry’s fastest-growing audiences: Health & Fitness, and Self-Improvement consumers.
Join hosts Tom Webster and Alexandria Caggia as they break down how these audiences use podcasts to build daily routines, the surprising social role recommendations play in their content choices, and why these genres lead in openness to brand integrations and celebrity-hosted shows. Registration is free and open now.
What Podcasting Gets Right About Attention (Even If the Budgets Don’t) by Lynne d Johnson
An interview with Sounds Profitable’s Bryan Barletta filmed at Cannes Lions last week, including insights from The Advertising Landscape. Podcasting has left the phase of being a niche market, yet marketing budgets have yet to rise to meet its growth. Barletta compares podcasting to alt-rock in the 90s: it’s not particularly alternative anymore but people still believe that to be the case. There’s also value in showing up in places that aren’t specifically for one’s chosen niche, but brands are at. The value of networking can pay off over months, if not years, and influencers are finding that out. Up to and including Vidcon missing some familiar faces due to them going to Cannes instead.
Smart TVs: the New Smart Speakers for Podcasts by Paul Riismandel
Smart speakers have been a regular inclusion in audio industry surveys for about a decade, but have dropped off in recent years. Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights’ latest Download survey finds 2021 was the high water mark for podcast usage on smart speakers, with use hitting 31% of weekly podcast consumers using them to consume shows. In the intervening years that’s dropped 11 points, now just 20% this Spring. What has been gaining traction with podcast consumption is smart TVs, with the Spring Download finding 32% of weekly podcast consumer respondents are using a smart TV to consume podcasts. Meaning internet-enabled TVs are second only to smartphones in podcast consumption, and ahead of both smart speakers and laptops.
Crunchyroll to Produce Weekly Gachiakuta After Show Podcast Hosted by The Anime Effect
The new weekly audio podcast recapping popular shonen series Gachiakuta represents a new spinoff of The Anime Effect, a Crunchyroll-branded podcast produced in collaboration with Sony Music Entertainment. While The Gachiakuta After Show is not the first companion podcast to a popular series, it does represent an acknowledgement of podcasting’s capabilities. The show in question is adapting a successful manga that’s run for three years with an existing fanbase who’ve been waiting a year for the animated version. Die-hard fans of the manga will likely be tuned in already, while a branded podcast acts as another onboarding point for a new and/ extended audience of podcast consumers.
Why there’s a CPM slump in a growing CTV market by Seb Joseph and Krystal Scanlon
Buyers and sellers tell Digiday that while connected TV ad spend has increased, CPMs (cost per mille) are declining somewhere between 10% and 30% year-over-year, depending on sources. While some of the change is based on the specifics of a given company’s decisions throughout the year, there’s also wider shifts, such as Netflix’s CPM decisions last year causing many other companies to also lower their prices in a race to the bottom. Ad tech advancements have also allowed advertisers to more precisely target their inte nded audience, and negotiate harder in the process. Truth is, it’s incredibly hard to raise CPMs in any industry. In addition, CTV lacks the concept of delivering host-read ads at the scale podcasting can, making an already difficult goal even harder.
AudioUK on the Creative Industries Sector Plan
Recently the UK government published their Creative Industries sector plan. One corner of the creative industries not acknowledged in the plan is podcasting. In response, AudioUK has published a statement arguing for podcasting and audio to be recognized for their contributions to media in the UK, estimating the overall audio industry has an annual worth of £5 billion. The statement calls on the UK government to formally recognize podcasting and audio as part of the enshrined Creative Industries, for podcasters and audio producers to be included in the Creative Industries Council, and for the audio industry to be included in various tax and funding initiatives that already provide support to other home-grown forms of media in the UK.
As for the rest of the news…
- Mark your calendars for July 16th at 2:00 p.m. EST, as YouTube will be hosting a webinar specifically about how podcasters can best leverage YouTube’s live streaming capabilities.
- Women’s digital fitness app obé has been acquired by Dear Media, taking the network a step towards being a complete platform for women beyond podcasts.
- PanelPicker, the official SXSW community voting platform for session proposals, opens today for SXSW 2026. This Friday there will be live AMA sessions for both SXSW and SXSW EDU for those with questions about submitting, as well as virtual office hours throughout July for any remaining questions.
- The Podcast Tech Stack newsletter has an interview with RSS.com Head of Relationships Greg Wasserman talking about partnerships, podcast tech trends, and what people get wrong about podcast distribution.
- Almost Friday Media has relaunched the podcast spinoff of Bobby Dolan’s comedy improv series Could Be The Move.
- Headgum has brought on comedian Gianmarco Soresi’s interview podcast The Downside
- Patreon is changing prices for creators starting August 4th, with the Pro and Premium plans (which took 8% and 12% of patron contributions) being collapsed into one standard plan that charges 10%. As with previous pricing changes, accounts with existing published Patreon pages will not see a pricing increase
