Acast Opens Apple Podcasts Video to All Creators, Media Measurement in the Boardroom, & More

Acast Opens Apple Podcasts Video to All Creators, Media Measurement in the Boardroom, & More

August 5, 2026

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Video on Apple Podcasts: Now Open to All

Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to every creator on its platform, removing the invitation and waitlist requirements that had gated the feature during its beta. Shows that added video over the four-month beta saw an estimated 25% increase in weekly sessions on Apple Podcasts, and creators can monetize the video through Acast’s marketplace of more than 4,000 advertisers. Network creators get access through their partner managers, while everyone else can publish via a new Video plan tier that handles upload, distribution, automatic audio extraction, and performance analytics. “Video distribution in podcasting is becoming table stakes. What no one else can offer is the scale of the monetization engine,” said Valerie Reimer, Acast’s SVP of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships, who added that “video is an option, not a mandate, and a creator who decides against it is making a legitimate editorial judgment.”

Future of Marketing Briefing: Media measurement is becoming an asset in boardroom theater by Sam Bradley

Ad effectiveness and data-driven marketing have moved out of the CMO-CFO back-and-forth and into earnings calls, where executives now cite them as evidence of business discipline to shareholders. A Gain Theory survey found 49% of marketers are not confident their data can support CFO-level discussions, even as brands like Kraft Heinz point to an 8% increase in global return on ad spend from efficiency work. Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol praised his marketing team with “I love the way they’re using the dollars,” and P&G CFO Andre Schulten said “I firmly believe we have a big opportunity to increase the effectiveness of our media spend.” Good thing podcasting has spent years building just the kind of measurement infrastructure that can spice up those boardroom presentations. Winky emoji here.

Do Not Fuhgeddabout New Jersey’s Data Broker Law, Because It’s Already Live by Allison Schiff

Schiff reports that New Jersey’s data broker law took effect the moment Governor Mikie Sherrill signed it on June 30, with a registration deadline set for April 2027. The law bans the sale of sensitive data, including health information, precise geolocation, financial account details, biometric data, immigration status, and data collected from children, and carries penalties of $50,000 per record with no cap. Its broadest provision creates a new “data collector” category, pulling in companies that sell their own customer data rather than just the brokers who trade it. “You don’t have to consider yourself as being in the data business to be in scope,” said Charlie Simon of RTB House. New Jersey is the seventh state with a data broker law and notably wider in scope than earlier ones like California’s CCPA, which puts podcast ad-tech platforms and listener-data targeting practices in range of a compliance review. In short: better to know where your data comes from than be surprised by its provenance later.

As Hollywood studios chase creator culture, ownership gets complicated by Alyssa Mercante

Creator-driven IP can be quite successful, but publishers should be careful getting into open-source and collaborative IP. Plenty of adaptations exist for the SCP collaborative horror universe, but so do trademark disputes. Unlike viral sensations like Skibidi Toilet, A24 has discovered nobody owns the concept of “the backrooms” when attempting to trademark the inherently open-source collaborative world for Backrooms. Other properties sit at the opposite end, like the summer’s other smash hit content creator horror success: Obsession. Written and directed by YouTuber Curry Barker, the project trades more on Barker and co-creator Cooper Tomlinson’s previous success with low-budget horror and sketch comedy instead of direct adaptation.

The Smartest Streaming Strategy May Be Knowing What Not to Keep Exclusive by Kirby Grines

Kirby Grines argues that the sharper streaming play is licensing mature catalog while protecting the current releases that actually drive subscriptions. He cites Parrot Analytics figures showing licensed titles have generated more than half of Netflix’s series-driven sign-ups since Q1 2025, rising above 53% in Q1 2026 while making up roughly 40% of its series catalog. The deals bear it out: Disney licensed 14 library series including Lost, This Is Us, and Prison Break to Netflix on 18-month non-exclusive windows, and AMC took a reported $500 million over five years for the Walking Dead franchise on co-exclusive terms. Meanwhile a flagship like Bridgerton drove just over 360,000 global sign-ups in Q1 2026, the quarter’s strongest, which is why it stays exclusive. The same exclusivity-versus-reach math is coming for podcast catalogs as audio goes multi-platform and video.

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