Reach of podcasts stays steady: The Podcast Landscape 2026

From Podnews Daily - podcast industry news Podnews LLC

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Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026 was released. Overall reach of podcasts remains steady at 74% of all Americans; but 34% of podcast consumers say they started consuming podcasts within the past year, up from 28% in 2025. As we heard at Podcast Movement a few weeks ago, in its first year carrying podcasts, Netflix was named by 21% of podcast consumers as a platform they had used in the past 12 months, placing it third behind YouTube (63%) and Spotify (33%), and ahead of Apple Podcasts (15%).
The winners of the Black Podcasting Awards were announced. The special occasion celebrated 66 award wins across 57 categories, earned by 44 podcasts, spanning comedy, true crime, business, faith, and everything in between. The Legend Award was won by Kevin Y Brown; we've a full list of the winners.
Oxford Road published the top performing shows for B2B advertising campaigns. It reminds us that listeners don't just listen to business podcasts - and that you need to find them based on what they listen to, rather than merely the subject of the podcast.

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