This Week in Podcasting - Podcast News 23 August
Podcasting is increasingly becoming part of a much larger media business, and this week's developments offered a useful snapshot of where that shift is heading. From changes to YouTube's measurement system to the growing role of video and creator-led media, five trends stood out.
1. Video is becoming part of the podcast business
For major podcasts, audio alone is increasingly difficult to separate from the rest of the content operation. Shows are being produced simultaneously for audio feeds, video platforms and social media, with clips becoming an important part of how audiences discover full episodes.
The result is a podcast that is no longer just an RSS feed. A successful episode can become a long-form video on YouTube or Spotify, shorter clips for social platforms and an audio programme for traditional podcast apps. That gives creators more opportunities to reach audiences, but it also means production is becoming more demanding, particularly for shows that want to compete at the highest level.
The direction is clear: for major shows, video is increasingly becoming part of the core business rather than an optional extra.
2. Measuring podcasts is getting harder
YouTube's changes to how it counts views have added another complication to an industry that already has no single, universal measurement system. Podnews reports that YouTube has changed the way podcast views are counted, making comparisons between platforms even more complicated.
That matters because numbers influence advertising, rankings, creator decisions and perceptions of a show's success. A “view” on YouTube does not necessarily represent the same behaviour as a podcast download or stream elsewhere, yet all of those numbers increasingly appear alongside one another.
As podcasts spread across platforms, the industry is going to need better ways to explain what its numbers actually mean, particularly when advertisers are deciding where to spend.
3. Advertising is growing — but so is the ad load
Podcast advertising continues to expand, with revenue up 23%, according to the latest industry data reported by Podnews. At the same time, average ad load has also increased. Podnews's latest update highlights the tension between those two developments.
More advertising means more potential revenue for creators and publishers, but there is a limit to how much commercial content audiences will tolerate before the listening experience suffers.
That makes the next stage of podcast advertising particularly interesting. The industry has demonstrated that advertisers want podcasts, but growth cannot simply mean putting more ads into every episode. The challenge will be increasing revenue while keeping audiences willing to stay through the programme.
4. Podcast hosts are becoming media companies
Jay Mohr offers a useful example of how far a podcast can now expand beyond its original format. His Mohr Stories podcast is becoming the anchor of a new streaming channel, showing how a successful podcast can serve as the foundation for a much broader media business. Page Six reports on the development.
The important shift is that the podcast is no longer necessarily the finished product. It can become the starting point for a channel, with the host's personality and existing audience providing the foundation for additional programming.
That model could become increasingly attractive to established hosts who already have the audience and brand recognition needed to support a larger media operation.
5. Podcasting is moving deeper into the creator economy
The divide between podcasting and the wider creator economy continues to shrink. The Interactive Advertising Bureau's decision to bring CreatorFronts, Podcast Upfront and PlayFronts together is a strong institutional signal that advertisers increasingly see these formats as part of the same media opportunity. IAB's announcement confirms the move.
The significance goes beyond one industry event. It reflects how creators increasingly move across podcasts, video, social platforms, live content, and other formats while building audiences around themselves rather than around a single medium.
For podcasting, that means the creator is increasingly the product's centre of gravity, with the podcast becoming one important part of a much larger content business.
What we're watching
Taken together, these five trends point in the same direction: podcasting is becoming more connected to the wider media and creator economy.
Video is changing production, measurement is struggling to keep pace, advertising is expanding, hosts are building channels and advertisers are increasingly treating podcasts alongside other creator formats.
The podcast is still at the centre, but the business being built around it is getting much bigger.
