SXSW 2026 Unveils AI, Podcast, Spotify Speakers for Innovation Conference Lineup by Etan Vlessing
The Hollywood Reporter covers the lineup of keynote speakers for SXSW 2026, including Spotify co-president and CTO Gustav Söderström. As has been covered previously, this year also marks the incorporation of Evolutions by Podcast Movement into SXSW’s business of podcasting programming. March 13th through 15th Evolutions will act as a home base for podcasting within SXSW, all with free admission (pre-registration is live and encouraged due to building capacity).
On Air Fest is just a month away, and they’re announcing even more guests. One big example, joining an already stacked event list, is Pushkin Industries’ music interview podcast Broken Record recording a live episode with composer Wyclef Jean. I have a lil’ something to announce myself: I’ll be in attendance this year to cover the event, interview folks from all over the industry, and produce a new podcast directly from the event. Stay tuned for more on that. One quick reminder to Sounds Profitable partners: On Air Presents has provided us with discount codes for partners planning on attending. If you’ve not booked your pass yet, hit us up on Slack or reply to this email for more details!
Pushback to ‘Podcasts are dead’
The Times has published a piece titled Podcasts are dead – it’s all about video now. Writer James Marriott makes the argument that video podcasting’s growth is a signal of podcasting devolution, where “shows” are destined to outright replace “podcasts” as a concept until entropy is reached and video podcasts are simply episodic YouTube videos. Lower Street CEO Harry Morton does not mince words in his rebuttal. Even with legacy examples of TV coming for radio, claims of video killing the radio star have been exaggerated. In the podcasting world, the Download report from Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights late last year found 92% of podcast consumers listen to at least some of their podcast content, while only 8% exclusively watch video. Morton positions video as what it is: a distribution multiplier, not a replacement for audio. Podcasting is doing just fine. Lower Street should know, they’re currently hiring a Chief Revenue Officer.
Netflix Doubled Its Ad Revenue Last Year – And Expects To Do The Same In 2026 by Alyssa Boyle
Netflix has published two significant things this week: their 2025 full-year earnings, and a revised offer to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. The earnings call announced they beat revenue expectations last year with $42.5 billion in revenue, a 16% year over year increase. Lucas Shaw’s analysis highlights the company’s plan to spend $20 billion on programming this year (10% up y-o-y) softens that revenue, as they’re putting money back into content production and halting stock buybacks to save up cash to buy Warner Bros. Discovery. Slowed growth or not, $1.5 billion of Netflix’s revenue came from advertising, a roughly 150% increase year over year. While this ad revenue doesn’t directly benefit the world of podcasting, as Netflix doesn’t have a creator model like Spotify and YouTube, the addition of video podcasting to Netflix this month could lead us down that path. Especially with their existing Spotify relationship.
As for the rest of the news…
- Magellan AI has their December 2025 top podcast advertisers ranking, with Aura Frames coming in first place ($7,135,000 in December spend).
- The Rebooting Show interviewed Vox CRO Geoff Schiller about the company becoming “the HBO of podcasting” and their overall podcast strategy.
- SpotsNow has launched what they’re calling “Hotel Tonight for host-read podcast ads,” a platform connecting advertisers with urgent budgets with high-quality, unsold podcast inventory.
- Lauren Vetrano at Westwood One/Cumulus Media has a new analysis of the Fall 2025 Podcast Download (no relation) from Signal Hill Insights and Cumulus Media.
- Ben Robins has a new edition of Sound Insights looking at audience behavior and how it compares to Netflix’s podcasting strategy.
- Goalhanger has announced a two-day members-only event dubbed The Rest is History Festival, in which fans of the series will spend an extended weekend at Hampton Court Palace attending live episodes, meeting guest historians, and watching historical reenactments.
