Bloomberg’s Audio Success, New UK Audio Survey, & More

Bloomberg’s Audio Success, New UK Audio Survey, & More

February 9, 2026

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As the nation’s eyes turn to Minneapolis, they’re also turning to Minnesota Public Radio by Joshua Benton

Nieman Lab takes a look at Q4 2025 performance metrics for public radio stations based on web traffic. Minnesota Public Radio topped off the list as the #1 for November and December, with Oregon Public Broadcasting taking the top spot in October. It’s worth noting the killings of Renée Good and Alex Pretti happened in early January, not impacting the numbers for MPR. The October-December boost in MPR traffic stems from the longer story of ICE presence in Minneapolis and nearby Chicago during Q4 of last year drawing press attention to the area. MPR’s performance shows what happens when public media is able to exist and do the work it was designed for from the start. Local journalism produced locally gets results. 

 

AudioUK supports DCMS research into the UK podcasting and audio industry

The UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport is launching a new research project aiming to look at the scale of the UK’s podcasting and audio industry. In partnership with AudioUK, the DCMS data will help shape how the UK government approaches and supports podcasting going forward. As such, AudioUK is encouraging companies and organizations relevant to podcasting in the UK to fill out their short survey to chip in. Get to it, UK readers!



Bloomberg Radio And Podcast Listening Rise Sharply In 2025

Inside Audio Marketing covers a new memo sent to employees by Bloomberg Media CEO Karen Saltser that outlines their full-year 2025 financial and audience data. According to the memo, revenue is up 6% year over year thanks to double-digit subscription growth. Audio advertising in particular had a 16% y-o-y increase, which itself is boosted by podcast revenue specifically growing 36%. Which comes on the heels of last year’s renewed agreement with iHeartMedia to have them continue handling Bloomberg podcast ad sales and distribution, as iHeart has done since 2021. 

 

Hollywood Is Losing Audiences to AI Fatigue by Miles Klee

Wired looks at the downfall of “AI” in the public consciousness, both in fiction and practice. Back in 2023, just before ChatGPT became a household name, M3GAN was lauded as a campy self-aware horror romp about an AI run amok. Now AI-jaded audiences shun movies about sentient AI-like characters, from M3GAN 2 to Mercy (the current Chris Pratt thriller about convincing an AI judge he’s innocent of a crime). Recently a trailer for the Darren Aronofsky-directed web series On This Day…1776 dropped, showing the series is animated using generative AI with SAG actor voices dubbed after the fact. The comment section of the trailer is so rough it feels like the digital equivalent of pitchforks and torches banging on the door to Castle Frankenstein. There are successful use-cases for AI tech in Hollywood, but they’re largely unseen by the public. For example, you’ve likely not heard a peep of negative AI press about Sinners, even though the production crew used an in-house LLM to speed up frame-by-frame placement of Michael B. Jordan’s face over his body double. But over-saturation can be an intense thing in Hollywood. It seems genAI (both as a concept and a delivery method) might have reached that point. Consider zombies! Back in the early 2010s the zeitgeist LOVED zombies. Then a tipping point was reached, and zombies fell so far down the horror pantheon they only re-appear in occasional breakout hits like 28 Years Later. 

 


As for the rest of the news…