BetterHelp Taps Media Bodies to Lead International Podcast Advertising Expansion
Creator-led media agency Media Bodies has been appointed to lead BetterHelp’s international podcast advertising strategy across 10 markets. The scope covers strategic planning, market analysis, creator and show selection, partnership management, campaign execution, optimization, and performance analysis. The approach is built around localized strategies rather than uniform global tactics, accounting for regional differences in podcast maturity, media consumption, and attitudes toward mental health.
IAB Tech Lab’s Programmatic Standard Practices Available for Public Comment
The IAB Tech Lab has opened its first Programmatic Standard Practices (v1) for public comment through October 16. The document is the inaugural deliverable of the Programmatic Governance Council, a senior-level, cross-industry forum focused on business and governance issues in programmatic advertising. Rather than introducing another technical standard, the practices set shared business rules and principles for how buyers and sellers use the standards that already exist, with the aim of improving market efficiency, reducing transaction costs, and increasing trust and transparency.
So, So Much Cake: What Your Default Streamer Says About Retention
A new issue of Media, Built examines what it means for a streaming service to be a viewer’s “default,” the app they open first, and how that status affects retention. The piece draws on Hub Entertainment Research’s “Decoding the Default” study of 1,600 U.S. broadband users ages 16 to 74. Netflix is called the default by 28% of all users, and 62% of those default users say they would keep it if they dropped other services. YouTube Premium sits at 28% overall and 80% among its default users, Prime Video at 15% and 71%, and live linear TV at 46% and 72%. Hub concludes that default users are two to six times more likely to retain a subscription.
What If We’re All Wrong and AI Isn’t a Form of Publishing? by Myles Younger
U of Digital Chief Growth Officer Myles Younger challenges the assumption that consumer AI will inevitably become ad-supported the way internet publishing did, pushing back on Ben Thompson’s view that a consumer AI company “has to be doing advertising.” Younger argues AI is better understood as labor, a utility, or an appliance than as media. He also contends that publishing benefits from low marginal distribution costs, while AI has almost no economies of scale because each interaction requires new, costly generation. AI offers practical value rather than the “hedonic utility” of entertainment, which supports paid models such as phone-plan-style subscriptions or bundled appliances over ad support.
…as for the rest of the news:
- The Podglomerate and AIR are hosting a free webinar on video podcasting for audio producers on Wednesday, September 30 at 12 p.m. ET, featuring speakers from The Daily Beast, YouTube, and The Lever.
- Signal Awards entries surged 30% for a second straight year as Jon Stewart, Amy Poehler, NPR, iHeart and KCRW are among the 2026 finalists. Listener’s Choice voting is open through October 15 and winners will be announced October 20.
- Beehiiv’s Head of Podcasts Ainsley Rossitto discusses why the platform is betting on podcasts with Jeff Umbro on Podcast Perspectives, including a roadmap that features dynamic ad insertion, a campaign manager, and a video distribution hub.
- Red Seat Ventures is building a cross-platform media network around top creators, and VP of Business Development Chris Peterson lays out the strategy in a Net Influencer profile.
- Guideline reports that average U.S. digital CPMs fell to $9.06 in Q2 as streaming inventory grows, with video CPMs down 7% year over year to around $11.
