The Best Real Estate in Podcasting, Ofcom Publishes U.K. Listening Data, & More

The Best Real Estate in Podcasting, Ofcom Publishes U.K. Listening Data, & More

July 30, 2026

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The Podcast Atlas, Part 5: The Best Real Estate to Own in Podcasting by Tom Webster

Concluding the five-part article series covering The Podcast Atlas, Tom Webster looks at the humble podcast newsletter. The data shows newsletters act as the one piece of real estate a creator actually owns. Unlike a platform feed or a social account, a permission-based email list gives a show a direct, two-way line to its audience, one that survives algorithm changes and does not hand listener data to an intermediary. Webster frames that access as a responsibility as much as an asset: “A newsletter is how a creator earns the gift of an email address, and if you’re going to ask someone for that gift, you owe it to them to honor it.”

What Podcasters Can Learn From the Sports Social Industry About Selling Their Shows by Nick Cicero

In a new Sounds Profitable thought leadership article, Mondo Metrics founder Nick Cicero discusses how podcasters undervalue social clips, treating them as revenue walking out the door rather than as inventory. Sports teams solved the same problem a decade ago, building owned original content around their core properties and then packaging clip distribution alongside full-episode integrations in a single sponsorship deal. Cicero argues clips are a top-of-funnel placement that routes audiences toward premium content, not a substitute for it.

Ofcom’s Media Nations 2026 Details U.K. Podcast and Speech-Audio Listening

U.K. media regulator Ofcom released its annual Media Nations 2026 study, and podcasting runs throughout it, with Podnews reporting the word “podcast” appearing 135 times. Ofcom finds 53% of U.K. adults listen to speech audio such as podcasts or talk radio, that people aged 25 to 34 have the highest reach across speech radio, podcasts and audiobooks, and that YouTube is now the most-used platform for any audio content. On ad load, only 45% of U.K. listeners feel there are too many adverts in the podcasts they hear, a comparatively advertiser-friendly reading. The full Ofcom report is available for free download.

Steve Goldstein: The Download Built Podcasting. Now It’s Holding It Back by Brad Hill

Goldstein writes a new guest piece for RAIN News reviewing the recent AMP Accords. According to him, the download has become an obsolete metric that measures file delivery rather than listening and can inflate audience figures by as much as 50%. Goldstein advocates moving podcasting onto verified, impression-based metrics comparable to television and digital video, which he says would let podcasts compete on the same dashboards as other media and could bring in an additional $1 billion to $2 billion in ad revenue. His summary of the case: “Better data, more dollars. That’s the whole case.”

SiriusXM Is Using Sports to Escape the Broad-Bundle Trap

SiriusXM will launch a $5-per-month Sports Pass on September 1, packaging all NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL games, motorsport and other live events, local Audacy stations such as WFAN and 94WIP, ESPN Radio, Fox Sports Radio and Westwood One, plus hundreds of sports channels and podcasts. Inside Audio Marketing notes the tier also folds in Audacy’s local sports stations and Good Karma Brands’ KSPN Los Angeles. The Streaming Wars frames the move as SiriusXM isolating one of its strongest engagement categories and pricing it as an entry-level product to reach listeners who would not buy a full subscription, a shift that pulls podcasts into satellite radio’s tiered monetization.

…as for the rest of the news: