by Gavin Gaddis
In preparation for debuting The Podcast Landscape 2026 at Podcast Movement next week, Tom Webster shares a smidgen of data on what devices audiences prefer to consume podcasts with. Smart speakers are the closest thing podcasting has gotten to a “default” device in recent years, and they’re firmly at the bottom. Smart TVs have climbed from 8% primary listening in 2024 to 12% this year. Despite initial hype, smart speakers have levelled out at 1%. Webster argues the shift reveals that audiences increasingly treat podcasts as foreground content that commands attention on a shared living-room screen rather than voice-summoned background audio.
The IAB has turned more bullish on the U.S. ad market, raising its 2026 growth forecast to 12.3% after a stronger-than-expected first half, up from the 9.5% it projected in January. Audio continues to grow, led by an 8.7% jump in podcast ad spending that outpaces the 3.6% growth of other digital audio. Inside Audio Marketing reports this growth also ranks podcasting ahead of paid search, digital display, and gaming. Social leads every channel at 16.5%, with connected TV close behind at 15.6%.
Last month, YouTube changed the publicly-visible “view” metric to reflect simply if a video had started playing, not a certain amount of continuous playback without stopping. This means mouseovers and autoplay for a brief moment can inflate viewcount. The original metric, now called “Engaged views” is only visible to the video uploader in their dashboard. ADOPTER Media founder Glenn Rubenstein warns that networks could raise 2027 prices on those inflated numbers, leaving brands to overpay for the same attention they were already buying. His fix is to make YouTube's legacy engaged views metric the standard on 2027 insertion orders, preserving what buyers and sellers already agreed a view was worth. Rubenstein says many networks have told him they intend to do this already, and he expects more to join the conversation during both the Sounds Profitable Business Summit and Podcast Movement NYC next week.
…as for the rest of the news:
Airwave has hired industry veteran Jim Lally as its Vice President of Partnerships & Business Development.
Audiencelift has launched Preferred Apps & Players, a growth tool that lets listeners discover shows across its network of more than 50,000 premium publishers and then pick their preferred app, from Apple Podcasts to YouTube Music to Overcast.
Steve Wilson has announced he is stepping down from his position at Daylight Media, reflecting on his time with the company all the way back to the QCODE days.
Ausha has renewed its partnership with SoundCast to offer eligible podcasters automatic monetization, handing creators more control over the ads on their shows and a 50% cut of the revenue directly through their Ausha dashboard.
Direct-to-audience platform SupaPass has appointed Steve Ackerman, former EVP and Head of Global Podcasts at Sony Music and co-owner of Somethin' Else, as a Non-Executive Director.
The latest Media Roundtable episode gathers brand-side buyers from DraftKings, AG1, Ro, and Morgan & Morgan, who argue that winning in podcast and creator advertising comes down to internal talent, agility, and relationships more than any single measurement dashboard.
CBS is extending its 48 Hours true-crime franchise into video podcasting with the new show The Woman in the Woods.
