Podcast Movement Evolutions at SXSW 2026 Sessions Now Live
Video recordings of presentations from this year’s Podcast Movement Evolutions are now available on the official Podcast Movement YouTube channel. The playlist features 25 videos spanning from 10-minute Discovery Track sessions to full-length 50-minute panels.
Otonal and The Asahi Shimbun Company release their annual survey of podcast usage in Japan. Conducted December 5-6, 2025, the survey targeted 10,000 respondents aged 15-69. Key findings include a one percentage point increase in national podcast consumption (18.2%) from 2024. In comparison to respondents who don’t consume podcasts, those who consume podcasts have a higher ratio of corporate decision-makers. By comparison to seven major forms of media, podcasting’s ratio of corporate decision-makers ranks second place, behind only newspaper readers.
HLS Video in Podcasts, Who’s Doing What? by John Spurlock
John Spurlock has published a new ongoing research project on Livewire Labs keeping tabs on HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) video podcasting. As of his March 29 update, Spurlock identified 78 podcasts with HLS video on Apple Podcasts, totaling 1,070 episodes. It lists each podcast host with HLS video, detailing Apple Podcasts and RSS support plus video formats, resolutions, codecs, and bitrates. Since the project specifically is looking at media files, hosting platforms that have promised future HLS support do not appear in the list.
What Marketers Should Take Away from IAB NewFronts 2026
Ad Results Media reports back from NewFronts 2026 with key takeaways, including the notion that the modern advertising industry has shifted to becoming always-on. NewFronts being shifted to take place earlier in the year reflects a structural change to how ads are bought and sold. Old-school tentpole buys tied to traditional upfronts are fading as connected TV (CTV) and creator-led media become ongoing investments, not one-off deal.
Versant Pursues a Deal for Vox Media’s Podcast Business by Benjamin Mullin and Jessica Testa
Versant, parent of CNBC and MS NOW, is reportedly pursuing Vox Media’s podcast network. The deal would feed into CEO Mark Lazarus’s stated goal of diversifying Versant’s revenue so roughly one-third comes from sources other than pay-TV in the next three to five years. Vox Media’s portfolio would also fit in with the audio efforts of Versant’s existing cable networks’ podcasting arms, including MS NOW’s video podcast productions and recent deal to broadcast Crooked Media clip compilations in a weekly 9 p.m. ET Saturday timeslot.
As for the rest of the news…
- Podnews reports SoundStack has recertified as IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines v 2.2 compliant.
- Jasmine Enberg and Kaya Yurieff at Scalable cover a “reckoning” for podcasting as top shows potentially overshadow low-to-mid-tier productions (including an expected higher impact on women and minority-hosted podcasts).
- Triton Digital has posted its Canada Podcast Ranker for February 2026, with the top six shows holding steady from January.
- Nova Entertainment has signed fast-growing self-development podcast Do You F***ing Mind? to the Nova Podcasts Network, joining other recent additions like Relatables and Two Broke Chicks.
- Acast has a writeup of an Advertising Week Europe session featuring Josh Woodhouse (Managing Director of Acast UK and Ireland), Gemma Abrahams (Lead Brand and Partnerships Manager at British Airways Holidays), and Wayne Davison (CRO, Little Dot Studios) discussing how brands and creators make the most of podcasting in 2026.
- PAVE Studios’ true crime brand Crime House has announced weekly video episodes for two existing audio franchises: Murder True Crime Stories and Conspiracy Theories, Cults & Crimes. These join the new series America’s Most Infamous Crimes in PAVE Studios’ new video expansion.
- The Podcast Academy has elected a new Board of Governors and has updated the full leadership page on its site.
