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- Jan 7: Two days ago, we covered a company that is copying podcasts to remove the ads, and then selling access. Glenn Rubenstein at Adopter Media covers the story, suggesting it raises a question of why tools like this may gain traction. "PodcastAdBlock didn't appear because people don't want to hear ads. It appeared because some shows are starting to cross an invisible line with their listeners," and suggests a path forward that podcast networks can make to improve the listener experience. (It's one reason why we run our "Having a bad DAI" feature, where we highlight ways we can improve - try the bottom of Jan 2 for an example).
- Jan 6: In the UK, Global have acquired a majority stake in The Overlap, one of the world's most popular football and sports destinations with more than 38 million monthly views on YouTube. The Overlap was founded by footballer Gary Neville, and recently acquired broadcasting rights for the German Bundesliga. The news comes in a World Cup year, after the launch of Global Studios and Sport by Global last October, and Global's acquisition of The Fellas Studios. No terms were given.
- Jan 5: Exclusive: A website called PodcastAdBlock is using AI to copy popular podcasts and resell them without the ads. Shows from publishers like Spotify, NPR, the New York Times, Slate, iHeart, and New York Magazine are all promoted on the website. We've taken a full look at the product, and how much it might be costing us.
- Jan 2: Listen Notes says that there were 198,488 new podcasts published in 2025. That figure was 198,280 in 2024, so is ever so slightly up year-on-year. The number of new podcast launches are actually much higher than that - the data refers to new podcast feeds rather than new podcasts: many new launches re-use existing feeds from older shows.
- Jan 1: Happy New Year! Take a note to update your podcast feed's copyright notice to say "2026" rather than "2025" when you next publish an episode. (You don't have to use a date, but if it's there, you probably want it to be correct, and in our experience, most people forget it's there in the first place.)
Data credits: Podnews newsletter