Sounds Profitable

This week in the business of podcasting:
New Sounds Profitable data shows the smart TV has overtaken the smart speaker as a top device for podcast listening, with Tom Webster arguing audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground viewing rather than background audio.
The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad market forecast to 12.3 percent, with podcast advertising expected to grow 8.7 percent and outpace other digital audio formats.
Scalable examines the wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, and what those exits reveal about scaling creator-led businesses.
True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson makes the case that podcasters do not need to be on every platform to grow, and should focus their time where it actually moves the needle.
To find links to these, and every article covered in this week's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:
New Podcast Landscape 2026 data shows smart TVs now drive 12% of primary podcast listening, up from 8% in 2024, while smart speakers have flatlined at 1%. Tom Webster argues audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground content on the shared living-room screen rather than voice-summoned background audio.
The IAB raised its 2026 U.S. ad growth forecast to 12.3%, up from the 9.5% it projected in January, after a stronger-than-expected first half. Podcast ad spending is climbing 8.7%, outpacing other digital audio and ranking ahead of paid search, digital display, and gaming.
YouTube's public "view" count now registers the moment playback starts, letting mouseovers and autoplay inflate the number, while the stricter "engaged views" metric is visible only to uploaders. ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein urges buyers to make engaged views the standard on 2027 insertion orders so brands don't overpay for the same attention.
To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

Today in the business of podcasting:
Red Seat Ventures has integrated Barometer's AI-powered brand suitability and contextual targeting engine into its Speakeasy platform, bringing episode-level ad targeting to a portfolio of more than 40 creators and cutting the over-blocking that leaves safe inventory unsold.
Scalable examines a wave of executive departures at creator-founded companies like Dude Perfect, Audiochuck, and Good Good Golf, tracing them to founder-centric business models and the friction of bringing in professional managers to scale.
True Native Media's Sabrina Nelson argues podcasters do not need to publish on every platform to grow, making the case for a focused distribution strategy that spends limited time where it actually moves the needle.
To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.

This week Tom Webster goes to the bottom of the device table in the brand-new The Podcast Landscape 2026 data and finds a story that has been quietly eroding for years. The smart speaker, once pitched as podcasting's cleanest shot at owning a default, has flatlined at one percent. The device actually climbing is the biggest screen in the house. Smart TV as the most-used way to listen jumped from 8 percent in 2024 to 12 percent in 2026, and folded together with second-most-used it now reaches 25 percent of podcast consumers, while the phone slipped.
Ahead of his keynote at Podcast Movement in New York, Tom gets into what that shift really means:
why podcast listening in the home is consolidating onto the television rather than spreading across every device in it
what a screen changes for advertisers when a show can be seen by a whole room instead of heard through one pair of earbuds
why the car makes the same point from the other direction, and the one context the industry has spent the least time thinking about
what the move from background to foreground says about what the audience has decided a podcast actually is

A preview of the questions Tom will take to the stage on the 17th.

Read the full issue here.

Today in the business of podcasting:
Bloomberg reports that BetterHelp is podcasting's biggest advertiser of all time, with an estimated $242 million spent since 2023 and ads running on more than 1,000 shows at once, per Magellan AI.
MS NOW is expanding its Crooked Media partnership, adding Jon Lovett's Lovett or Leave It to its Saturday night lineup starting September 12 through the 2026 midterms.
Digiday reports the creator economy still has no standard way to price talent, with roughly half of marketers mispricing fees and many admitting they overpay.
NPR launches a Senior Podcast Challenge inviting Americans 65 and older to submit original audio stories, with entries due November 30.
To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.