The tool copying podcasts, stripping the ads, and selling them by James Cridland
An investigation into a website called PodcastAdBlock. Cridland finds the site is using AI to copy podcasts, strip the ads, and sell the new ad-free feed back to users. For $9.99/month USD users can have unlimited ad-free versions of podcast feeds. A spokesperson also told Podnews there is no way for publishers to opt out of their feeds being stripped and publishers receive none of the revenue collected. A service that reflects lost revenue both from the ads stripped, and the ad-free offerings many publishers already have through Apple Podcasts, SupportingCast, and other companies. Ironically, YouTuber and entrepreneur Ben Bowler, the creator of PAB, also has a startup designed to protect music from unlicensed AI training.
Why Doesn’t AI Recommend Indie Podcasts by Frank Racioppi
A look at how generative AI chatbots, despite being the new hotness, leave some big blind spots when used for podcast curation/recommendation. When asked for the “best podcasts of 2025” ChatGPT returned a list of chart-toppers like New Heights and The Daily. Only when specifically prompted for best “independent” podcasts of the year did it begin to return shows that were critically acclaimed despite relatively low chart performance. Which, only then, appears to be the result of the AI trawling best-of lists on popular sites. GenAI bots, philosophically, give users the most likely answer to get a positive response. As a result, without discoverability strategies specifically tuned to grabbing the attention of chatbots, there’s a potential future where discoverability takes a step backwards. A future where AI searches gatekeep podcasts behind the prerequisite it has to be a chart-topper or have been mentioned in a Vulture list or written up in The Atlantic.
A Guardian article looking at the rising trend of big-name video podcasting, and some of the downsides that has brought along with it for the content itself. Joe Marler Will See You Now’s episode with Nick Mohammed features a multi-minute card trick (already difficult to make entertaining on camera) that’s impossible for audio-only consumers to decipher. Getting gear for quality video is also an issue, such as early episodes of The Rest is Football using lav mics in a cavernous studio. Neither of these are problems unique to the individual podcasts, but they do represent new pain points as companies as they dive head-first into video podcasting. A move that, if not handled deftly with an understanding of production and presentation, can be detrimental to both the video and audio version of the show.
People Watched 700 Million Hours of YouTube Podcasts on TV in October by Ashley Carman
Head of Product for Podcasts at YouTube, Steve McLendon, tells Carman the growth of video podcasting has surprised even YouTube. According to their internal data, 700 million hours of video podcasts were consumed on living room devices (e.g. connected TVs) in October of 2025. With 700 million being a huge number, Podnews puts it into perspective. Back in February, YouTube announced they crossed the 1 billion hours of YouTube streamed to TVs daily. At 700m per month, video podcasting makes up around 2.3% of YouTube TV streaming (compared to Nielsen’s data showing podcasts make up 20% of ad-funded audio). One crucial context to consider when looking at video podcast rates on YouTube is the fact a ‘podcast’ is delineated by the uploader marking it as a podcast. Which means there’s some uncounted shows out there. I know in my YouTube adventures I still occasionally see video podcasts that haven’t actually made the podcast a “podcast” in YouTube’s backend. After all, as New York Times coverage of Nielsen data shows, daytime viewership on YouTube is over double that of Netflix (6.3 million average daytime viewers vs. 2.8 mil).
Mondo Metrics founder Nick Cicero reflects on the death of MTV’s music channels on January 1st. He notes that while no major U.S. TV networks is still programming music videos, audiences for watching music and music-adjacent content are still massive. The difference is that the audience isn’t on cable TV like the 80s, it’s on YouTube. Cicero recalls polling students in a graduate course he teaches how many watch “a lot of YouTube.” Only a few hands went up, then one student mentioned she puts on YouTube music playlists with her TV while she cooks. When that activity was added to the room’s perception of “watching” a lot of YouTube, half the room qualified. There’s a perception gap there between stated media habits and actual CTV usage behavior. Music videos are considered ‘digital video’ in the advertising world, isolating them from TV budgets, indicating a buying inefficiency of TV-scale audiences priced like digital video and little to no competition for TV ad budget.
As for the rest of the news…
- Magellan AI has a new case study with Ad Results Media, looking at delivery from two major audio networks to find advertisers can add significant incremental reach by adding streaming to a podcast plan without also increasing podcast frequency.
- Backyard Ventures has signed on John Jarvis as Chief Revenue Officer. Congrats, John!
- LiveOne and DAX United States have announced they are renewing their exclusive partnership for 2026, with LiveOne projecting a 30% year-over-year increase in programmatic audio ad revenue this year.
- Audioboom has published their 2025 Numbers in Review, with key takeaways like 1.5 billion hours of listening, 200k published episodes, and $63 million generated for creators throughout last year.
- Acast has acquired German audio and video studio Wake Word Studios, which will be rebranded as the German arm of Acast Creative Studios.
- As reported in Podnews, Netflix has a new Support page on their site instructing users on how to find video podcasts (searching “podcast” on Netflix will pull all of them). According to Netflix, sports video podcasts will launch on the 12th and everything else will drop January 26th (though this is for the U.S. only). Among that first wave will be The Bill Simmons podcast, debuting January 11th with a weekly live show streaming at 11:30 p.m. EST.
