Podcast AI Disclosure, True Crime Audience Connections, & More

Long-form creators eye taking over TVs – and chasing bigger brand budgets by Alyssa Mercante

Digiday looks at the landscape of platforms looking to bring content creators’ long-form videos (videos longer than 20 minutes) from YouTube into the world of TV. Last week, growth platform Spotter held a pseudo-upfront in New York with talent like Dude Perfect and Jordan Matter in attendance. Creators have built loyal audiences and strong engagement; the challenge is convincing brands to shift ad budgets accordingly. A gap between audience attention and ad spend similar to the one podcasting has had for years. Still, content creators continue on into TV. Audiochuck recently announced a division specifically for TV and film content, and Universal’s UCP has secured the TV rights to adapt the podcast Wisecrack (with Tenderfoot TV attached as producer).

AI Disclosure in Podcasting: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Do It by Alberto Betella

RSS.com co-founder Betella reflects on a high school memory of a 1995 class debating the utility of typing assignments using a word processor with spell check versus hand-writing and referencing a physical document. Modern podcasting has a similar debate with generative AI tools, but with more nuance. Betella argues the problem is not AI but opacity. To address this, RSS.com added an AI disclosure checkbox during episode upload that adds an AI disclaimer tag to the RSS feed. The feature uses the existing Podcasting 2.0 feature for metadata that does not yet have a dedicated tag. An interactive questionnaire has been launched at shouldidisclose.ai to help podcasters unsure of whether their work needs an AI disclosure label. If widely adopted, AI disclosure metadata could enable apps to filter AI-generated content or label podcasts, giving audiences more info before subscribing. Advertisers would also have more transparency, allowing more informed decisions about which podcasts they spend budgets with.

Radio station owner Cumulus Media files for bankruptcy to cut $600 million debt by Dietrich Knauth

Reuters covers Cumulus Media filing for bankruptcy protection in Texas last week. A restructuring deal, if approved, would eliminate approximately $592 million in company debt. The proposal would eliminate existing equity shares and transfer ownership to the company’s lenders. A statement from CEO Mary Berner says the prepackaged process should cause no disruption to company operations, workforce, or strategies.

How Netflix’s Push into Podcasts Looks on YouTube by Ashley Carman

Several weeks after Netflix launched its video podcasting section and moved several podcasts to exclusivity, Bloomberg’s Ashley Carman examines how the exclusivity deals have affected their YouTube channels. According to anonymous sources, part of the Netflix exclusivity deal — in addition to not posting full episodes on YouTube — is a limitation on how many clips podcasts can post on third-party platforms. The piece finds two sizable podcast YouTube presences (Spittin Chiclets and 3 & Out with John Middlekauff) experienced a drop in new subscribers compared to January and February 2025. Though there is not yet data to show engagement traffic for the Netflix versions of the shows, which Carman anticipates in the next Netflix Engagement Report.

How True Crime Podcasters Are Asking Listeners to Help Them Solve Cases by Todd Spangler

Variety looks at one of true crime podcasting’s strongest tools: parasocial relationships with the audience. As PAVE Studios founder Max Cutler says, true crime podcasts leverage the inherent intimacy of audio podcasting, building a relationship between the listener and the host. Though true crime initially seems brand-unsafe, major brands now recognize that true crime fandom’s reach extends beyond books and TV. Now larger companies are embracing that fandom, such as Hyundai recently becoming a sponsor for long-running true crime series My Favorite Murder.

As for the rest of the news…