by Gavin Gaddis
Signal Hill Insights has published a new study titled Audio on the Move, a nationally representative survey of 6,161 Canadians aged 12 and older fielded in May and June 2026. Podcasts account for 9% of ad-supported listening time. AM/FM radio still leads that category at 39%, but YouTube and YouTube Music together now hold 25%, edging past Spotify and other streaming services at 24%. YouTube is also the top podcast discovery platform in Canada, with 40% of monthly podcast consumers naming it the service they use most often to find shows. "Audio choices and preferences continue to shift dynamically," said Matt Hird, VP of Research at Signal Hill Insights. The numbers show YouTube consolidating its position across both music and podcast listening in a market where broadcast radio still commands the largest share of ad-supported time.
Fawal draws on Sounds Profitable Podcast Atlas data to argue that audiences stay loyal to creators rather than platforms, citing that 73% of respondents would follow a host from audio into video and 84% say clips turned them into regular listeners. He lays out a "federation" model in which audio, video, clips, social, and newsletters function as a single asset rather than five separate channels, each mapped to one of three goals: reach, teach, and speech. The piece is aimed at mission-driven organizations such as nonprofits, associations, and universities that tend to treat a podcast as an isolated audio product. "Loyalty lies with the host, not the platform," Fawal writes. "Once you see it that way, the five formats stop being separate channels and become one asset."
NBCUniversal will bundle Peacock Premium with YouTube Premium starting in early 2027, a deal The Streaming Wars reads as media companies conceding the customer relationship to YouTube in exchange for cheaper distribution. Peacock reached 48 million subscribers and posted its first profitable quarter ahead of the announcement. The argument is that YouTube increasingly controls discovery, billing, and engagement while media companies supply the programming. "Google doesn't need to own premium programming when it can own the place where consumers discover it, subscribe to it and watch it," the piece states. The same dynamic is reshaping podcasting, where YouTube already ranks as the leading platform for finding new shows.
…as for the rest of the news:
Ozen.fm expands its Brazil team with media and advertising executives Fabio Urbanas and Luci Bondiole.
Australian parenting podcast Two Doting Dads joins Nova Podcasts, arriving with inaugural brand partnerships from OMO and Vegemite.
Don Lemon signs a podcasting deal with Libsyn to grow his network, with plans to add outside creator shows.
YAP Media Network adds Mick Unplugged, bossbabe, Corporate Gossip, and Miracle Mentality, and rebrands Negotiate Anything as Big Swings Only.
Next Audio establishes Asia-Pacific operations with a Jakarta appointment and a SiriusXM partnership.
Everybody Knows But Me returns with a guest-driven format featuring more made-for-TV family stories.
