by Gavin Gaddis
The Podcast Show London is just around the corner. This year Sounds Profitable has partnered with NumberEight, Katz Digital, Claritas, Barometer, Locked On, and AdLarge for the Pod-Tales and Cocktails Happy Hour at Bubba Oasis. Due to capacity, this is a waitlist link, but Sounds Profitable partners and clients of the sponsoring companies are given priority access. We'd love for you to sign up and hope to see you in London soon!
Libsyn, Podigee, Audioboom, Audiomeans, and Podspace now support the Spotify Distribution API. Creators on those platforms can distribute video podcasts directly to Spotify and monetize eligible content via the Partner Program. Spotify will also roll out Apple Podcasts’ HLS video support this year, enabling its hosted podcasts to reach Apple’s video ecosystem.
U.K. audiences tend to be ad-avoidant in their content. Sound Insights founder Ben Robins attributes this to the BBC’s long history of zero commercial advertising shaping audiences’ baseline content expectations. The 2026 U.K. Advertising Landscape Study finds 47% of U.K. adults cannot recall a single brand from advertising they’ve seen or heard in the past week. Podcasts are the outlier, with 86% podcast ad recall among 18-34-year-olds, 3% higher than broadcast TV recall. Podcast ad recall is gender-neutral: 79% for men, 80% for women. This mirrors the findings of the U.S. Podcast Landscape study, suggesting that podcasting's mass appeal across genders is not unique to one country.
Analyst Adam Bowie shares the Radio Joint Audience Research Q1 results for U.K. media. Radio reach overall is up 1.3% quarter over quarter and 1.1% year over year, totaling 87% of the U.K. population listening each week. Podcasts reached 27% of the population consuming at least one podcast a week.
Streamonomics’ look at Q1 streaming profits for “The Streaming Eight,” finding the companies collectively achieved $9.8 billion in profits, a 54% increase from 2025. As of last Friday the Attention 20 - the top 20 global attention economy companies ranked by enterprise value - were worth $20 trillion, a 20% increase since Owl & Co. launched The Attention 20 five weeks ago.
Japan’s largest podcast festival “PODCAST EXPO 2026” draws 12,713 attendees across two days in Tokyo
The inaugural PODCAST EXPO 2026 totaled 12,713 attendees across the event’s free public market, paid conference, and expo area. The release notes 152 podcast programs were exhibited, 63 speakers attended across 24 sessions, and 22 partner companies participated. The executive committee overseeing the expo notes Japan’s podcast scene has grown rapidly, but there aren’t many opportunities for fans and creators to congregate. PODCAST EXPO 2026 was their first stab at filling that gap.
…as for the rest of the news:
Alicia Luby, formerly of Right Side Up, BetterHelp, and Veritone One, is now Director of Offline Media at InfluenceLogic.
Red Seat Ventures has signed a multiyear partnership with true crime podcast Crime Weekly, serving as the show’s exclusive audio and video ad sales partner and distributor on both FOX and third-party streaming platforms.
Flightpath CEO Sean Howard has a new short video breaking down what Flightpath has learned over four years, teeing up the debut of its Revenue Optimizer tool next Wednesday on the Brand Stage at The Podcast Show London.
Defacto Sound founder Dallas Taylor chips in on the “pivot to video” conversation in the world of podcasting, discussing how video growth relates to identity.
The CBC, ABC, and BBC are joining forces to relaunch short-form documentary series Short Cuts as a podcast and radio series with original host Josie Long and original production company Falling Tree Productions.
Captivate and DAX US have announced a fully integrated platform partnership aiming to deliver a “more unified monetization experience for creators.”
AdLarge and the fwd. network have announced the renewal of The Tamsen Show, as well as changing the upload schedule to Mondays and Thursdays, adding an extra episode per week to meet growing listener and brand partner demand.
