Sounds Profitable

Today in the business of podcasting:
Sport Social Podcast Network argues that sports podcasting has shifted from a complementary format to a defining part of how fans experience the 2026 FIFA World Cup, citing a new BBC Studios and NumberEight campaign that drove a 19% awareness lift for a U.S. hospitality brand.
CoHost and Quill CEO Fatima Zaidi kicks off a new series by asking 10 founders what they would do differently in year one, drawing responses from industry figures including Oxford Road's Dan Granger and Sounds Profitable Partner Bryan Barletta.
Tubefilter examines what the box office success of creator-led films like Backrooms and Obsession signals for YouTubers and content creators looking to make the jump to Hollywood.
Nielsen's Q1 2026 edition of The Record finds U.S. consumers spend nearly four hours daily with audio, with 82% of ad-supported audio time going to radio and podcasts, and Edison Research data showing podcasts account for 30% of ad-supported audio time among adults 18 to 34.
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 year at Cannes Lions, Sounds Profitable is a sponsor of the Little Black Book Beach! Our partners will receive up to 3 tickets for access to the beach all week. Be sure to fill out this Google Form so we can register you and your team for the beach! Also, we have a custom graphic generator for those looking to announce they’re headed to France in a couple of weeks with some flair.
Tom Webster argues that LLMs have advanced faster than most people realize, and that pretending otherwise is magical thinking. He traces his own journey from basic prompt use to running local models on a home server, all without a coding background, to show that these tools are accessible to anyone willing to engage. And he has some pointed advice for anyone still on the fence about embracing AI in their work.
Written by Tom Webster
Edited and narrated by Gavin Gaddis

Find the full article here.

Today in the business of podcasting:
SiriusXM has struck a non-exclusive distribution and advertising deal with Fox's free streaming service Tubi, bringing popular video podcasts including Conan O'Brien Needs a Friend, Rotten Mango, and The School of Greatness to the platform starting in late June.
The ANA's Q1 2026 Programmatic Transparency Benchmark finds a growing performance gap between top advertisers, who convert 54% of programmatic spend into quality impressions, and lower-performing peers who convert just 32.1%, with private marketplace transactions accounting for 85% of all programmatic spending.
The IAB has filed an amicus brief in Baker v. Seattle Children's Hospital, a case before the Washington Supreme Court in which plaintiffs argue a hospital's use of Meta Pixel for marketing constitutes illegal wiretapping under 1960s-era laws — a theory the IAB's general counsel says could threaten all ad-supported media.
Media, Built newsletter author Steve Raizes argues the podcasting industry is better served by confronting accurate audience metrics sooner rather than later, using Apple's iOS 17 auto-download change as a precedent and pointing to the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting's ongoing work to establish a verified industry metric.
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:
CoHost & Quill VP of Marketing Alison Osborne argues the podcast industry is solving the wrong measurement problem: B2B brands have moved past "how many downloads" and are now asking who is listening, whether the right audiences are finding the show, and whether those listeners are appearing in the sales funnel.
Acast CEO Greg Glenday says brands are misallocating podcast ad spend by following genre assumptions rather than audience behavior, citing Acast data showing food podcasts receive roughly half of food delivery ad spend despite representing less than 1% of relevant listener conversations.
Magellan AI has built an attribution platform measuring broadcast radio alongside podcasts and streaming audio, with early case studies showing radio drives far greater total sales volume while digital audio outperforms on a per-impression basis — making the case for measuring all audio together.
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.

Grab your custom Cannes Lions attendee announcement graphic for free here!
Today in the business of podcasting:
A roundup of all the top stories from The Podcast Show London last week.
New data from Sounds Profitable's Advertising Landscape 2025 study shows that AM/FM radio Primes and podcast Primes have only a 1.4% overlap, challenging the idea that the two formats compete for the same audience. Tom Webster argues that sellers holding both types of inventory are offering two nearly non-duplicated engaged audiences in a single buy — a stronger combined asset than the competitive framing has allowed advertisers to see.
The Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting (AMP), a 12-member industry task force organized by Oxford Road and including Spotify, SiriusXM Media, BetterHelp, DraftKings, and others, has publicly emerged after meeting since July 2025 to address podcast measurement and definition challenges. The group's three focus areas are standardizing impression metrics, developing cross-platform performance measurement, and agreeing on a universal definition of a podcast.
A new Signal Hill Insights Pulse Report, conducted with FlightStory, finds that 45% of monthly podcast consumers in the U.K. have used a smart TV to listen to or watch podcasts in the past month, making smart TVs the second most-used device ahead of computers. More than half of video podcast viewers in the U.K. watch during prime time (7–11 p.m.), and the data suggests video podcasting is growing podcasting's overall audience share by replacing other video consumption rather than cannibalizing audio listening.

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.