Podnews Weekly Review – Details, episodes & analysis

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

What happens when Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Amazon, Acast, Adobe, Pocket Casts, Triton, Bumper, Transistor, creators, and analysts all compare notes on where podcasting just landed—and where it’s headed next? You get a clear picture of a medium that’s fully mainstream, proudly hybrid, and fiercely contested. We gathered 25+ voices to unpack 2025’s biggest shifts and lay down their boldest calls for 2026.

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

We track the biggest forces shaping podcasting next year: Goalhanger’s network effect, a pivot to listener-based analytics, and the tension between open RSS and closed “podcast” branding from big platforms. We dig into video hosting defaults, live streaming, and why honest metrics will decide winners.

(It's a re-upload! With the intro.)

• Apple’s Show of the Year milestone and Goalhanger’s model
• Cross-promo and cadence as scalable growth levers
• Flight Studio’s talent strategy versus brand synergy
• Hall of Fame inductees and industry recognition
• Creator retention, audio versus video habits, and practical focus
• Fountain’s video hosting and sensible playback defaults
• TrueFans roadmap for audio, video, and live with HLS
• TikTok’s “podcasts” and why definitions drive ad budgets
• Substack live streaming and platform convergence
• Pod Analyst’s unified telemetry, retention curves, and sales clarity
• Downloads versus unique listeners and consumption baselines
• Bot and AI slop concerns and search downgrading
• Libsyn price rises and market signals
• Awards season, new events, and what’s ahead

(This description is from Buzzsprout's CoHost AI, which is very good and are our sponsor).

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

Flightcast’s Rox Codes joins us to unpack a video-first hosting and growth platform built for YouTube, Spotify, and serious creators, while we challenge inflated web “browser” downloads, pricing resets, and what actually counts as a podcast in a $3B market. We weigh useful AI assistants against synthetic co-hosts, and map the road to practical standards like HLS and Podcasting 2.0.

• livewire host-share data showing consolidation and heritage brands sliding
• price rises at major hosts and how AI features drive bundled costs
• web player download spikes likely from bots, scrapers, and cloud IPs
• what Flightcast publishes where and why video-first matters
• AI analytics assistant for multi-platform, time-bounded insights
• clip experimentation on separate channels to validate winners
• storage choices enabling future video RSS and richer search
• podcasting 2.0 tags for chapters and transcripts on the roadmap
• why HLS needs shared best practices before broader adoption
• Global Studios’ video push and creator acquisitions
• the $3B ad forecast and the definition problem of “podcast”
• Apple’s Podroll video promos UX quirks and limits
• soundbites, playlists, and underused standards for discovery
• creator tools: Audacity redesign and Whisper.cpp speed gains
• a human-first stance on AI: assist, don’t replace

Start podcasting, keep podcasting with BuzzSprout.com

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

We interview Blubrry's Todd Cochrane about his new Vid2Pod tool; and chat with RedCircle's  Mike Kadin about OpenRAP. Plus, the BBC's podcast strategy.

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

We interview Evan Prodromou on ActivityPub - and catch up with Gretchen Smith from Ad Results Media about ARM Pro.

James also helpfully wades into the "preloading audio" argument that's consumed podcastindex.social over the last week.

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

In the chapters today...

Sam chats with Gretta Cohn about Pushkin's future plans

James chats with Alban Brooke about Buzzsprout's iOS app

Apple's transcripts, and YouTube Music's firings

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

We talk:

• Podcast Search Optimisation,
• New IAB guidelines
• Court cases, and lots more

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

James and Sam are at The Pod in Brisbane - https://edgestudio.productions/the-pod/ - to cover what's been going on this week in podcasting.

This week - an interview with Stew Redwine on what makes a good podcast ad; Anthony Nwaneri on his podcast Why Your Podcast Isn't Growing - and Sam gets some rants off his chest. Buckle up!

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

While Sam wanders around Australia, James interviews David Locke from the Locked On Podcast Network on how they use SMS to make more loyal listeners; and Amelia Coomber from Podscribe on new data for podcast advertising.

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net

Send James and Sam a message or voicemail

James is joined this week by Dave Jones of the Podcast Index. https://podcastindex.org/

Support the show

Connect With Us: 

• Email: weekly@podnews.net
• Fediverse: @james@bne.social and @samsethi@podcastindex.social
• Support us: www.buzzsprout.com/1538779/support
• Get Podnews: podnews.net