Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting:
With the Premier League banning front-of-shirt gambling sponsorships from the 2026/27 season, Sport Social's Ryan Barker argues official team and fan podcasts are the natural landing spot for betting brands, pointing to a Sky Bet partnership across 20 football podcasts that reached more than one million listeners.
Bumper co-founder Dan Misener explains why Apple Podcasts play counts are inflated: Apple counts every tap of the play button, not every listener, making the metric impossible to compare with Spotify plays or YouTube views.
iHeartMedia reported Q2 2026 podcast revenue up 20.7% year over year to $162 million, now 16.5% of total company revenue, alongside a new video podcast deal bringing shows to Disney+ and Hulu.
Magellan AI's Q2 2026 Podcast Advertising Quarterly Benchmark Report finds podcast ad revenue up 23% year over year, with average ad load rising to 8.75% of runtime, or roughly five and a half minutes of ads per hour.
YouTube is doubling its Partner Program requirements effective February 1, 2027, raising qualified watch hours from 4,000 to 8,000 and Shorts views from 10 million to 20 million, raising the cost of entry for podcasters leaning on video.
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:
Sounds Profitable's Ask a Marketer webinar on August 18 brings Right Side Up's Krystina Rubino and Quo's Tori Murray together with Tom Webster to break down The Podcast Atlas, a survey of 5,061 U.S. consumers on how creator-based advertising performs across audio, video, social, and newsletters. The two buyers sort which research findings actually move a media plan.
The FCC voted 2-1 to repeal the 39% national TV ownership cap, clearing the way for broadcast station-group consolidation and shifting oversight to antitrust courts. Larger groups gain leverage in retransmission talks and more inventory for FAST channels and connected-TV advertising.
RSS.com launched a Max plan that publishes video podcasts to Apple Podcasts via HLS streaming with dynamically inserted programmatic ads from episode one. Creators keep 70% of ad revenue with no audience threshold, unlike YouTube's 1,000-subscriber and 4,000-watch-hour requirements.
Nielsen agreed to acquire media-verification company DoubleVerify for $2.15 billion in an all-cash deal at $13.60 per share. The combined company spans TV, streaming, digital, social, mobile, and audio measurement with more than $4 billion in annual revenue.
The ANA, the 4As, and the IAB are aligning for the first time in nearly a decade on AI governance, retail media standards, and workforce development, culminating in an Industry Leadership Summit this October. The group's AI-governance and measurement work could shape standards that reach audio advertising.
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 in the business of podcasting:
Spotify is testing "Skip Ahead," a one-tap ad-skipping tool for Premium subscribers, and the industry is pushing back over what it means for host-read sponsorships and advertiser attention reporting.
Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to all creators on its platform, after beta shows saw an estimated 25% increase in weekly Apple Podcasts sessions.
A coalition of 18 U.K. media organizations is urging the government to reject advertising on BBC podcasts, citing an estimated £10 million in annual revenue against the harm to independent audio businesses.
The IAB released "Measuring Visibility in the AI Era," a framework sorting AI search visibility metrics into four categories as more than 20 vendors sell competing tools with materially different results.
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:
Industry leaders including Crooked Media's Tommy Vietor, Right Side Up's Krystina Rubino, and ADOPTER Media's Glenn Rubenstein are responding to Spotify's "Skip Ahead" test, which lets Premium listeners clear an entire ad break, sponsor read, or intro in a single tap.
A coalition of 18 U.K. commercial audio companies is urging the government to drop proposals allowing advertising on BBC podcasts, arguing the BBC would earn only about £10 million a year while draining revenue from the independent audio sector.
Gap Inc., Staples, and Starbucks have launched employee-creator programs, betting that firsthand accounts from actual staff read as more credible than polished brand marketing.
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:
Acast has opened video publishing on Apple Podcasts to all creators on its platform, ending the beta waitlist after shows using video saw an estimated 25% lift in weekly Apple Podcasts sessions.
Media measurement and ad effectiveness have moved from CMO-CFO conversations onto public earnings calls, even as a Gain Theory survey finds 49% of marketers doubt their data can hold up at the CFO level.
New Jersey's data broker law is already in effect, banning sensitive data sales with $50,000-per-record penalties and creating a "data collector" category that pulls podcast ad-tech and listener-data practices into scope.
Hollywood studios chasing creator-driven IP are running into ownership problems, as A24's attempt to trademark "the backrooms" shows the risks of adapting open-source collaborative worlds.
Kirby Grines argues the smartest streaming strategy is licensing mature catalog while keeping current releases exclusive, citing Parrot Analytics data showing licensed titles drove over 53% of Netflix series sign-ups in Q1 2026.
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.