Podcast appearances influence voters - say voters

From Podnews Daily - podcast industry news Podnews LLC

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In the US, one in four podcast listeners say that a candidate's podcast appearance might influence their vote. That's according to new data from Sounds Profitable, released today ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
- The Sounds Profitable data also suggests that podcasting is nearly evenly divided along party lines in terms of number of consumers. However, in terms of time spent listening, independents spend more time with podcasts according to new data also recently released from Edison Research.
Jake Shapiro from Apple Podcasts is the guest for the PodBiz podcast this week, talking about HLS ads within Apple Podcasts. His appearance "coincides" with the show becoming available in HLS video for the first time in Apple Podcasts, via Acast.
- Shapiro notes that "HLS ads are both audio and video". Apple Podcasts will soon start charging advertising networks an impression-based fee for dynamic HLS ads - a charge which Podnews understands has slipped until early 2027. When it does, the company will be charging whether the user is watching or only listening.
While Acast's Podcast Pulse might suggest that podcast consumers use both audio and video, in Australia, PodPoll 26 - released today - asked a better question: "how do you prefer to consume podcasts"? Overwhelmingly, podcast consumers prefer to listen, the data shows: 60% saying they preferred audio, while only 23% say they prefer to watch podcasts. The research also shows that 50% of Australians are regular monthly podcast consumers: the first time in this study. We've more numbers from it here.

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