Is Netflix’s podcast strategy succeeding? Writing in Puck ($), and reporting in Awful Announcing, Matthew Belloni suggested that “Multiple (Netflix) company sources have told me that overall podcast engagement numbers are low.” Belloni states that “no video podcast has ever made Nielsen’s weekly top 10”.
- Opinion: These two statements are not extremely Suffice it to say that Netflix has failed to add podcasts. Edison Research reported earlier in the month that 14% of weekly podcast consumers have used Netflix to consume podcasts, and Samba TV suggested that 13% of Netflix households have consumed podcasts on the platform. According to engagement data: Samba TV data revealed that 40% of all podcast views on the platform went to The Breakfast Club; Which was 3 times bigger than the #2 show, the Netflix companion podcast for Bridgerton. If there were only 13% of podcast views on Bridgerton, you can imagine there’s quite a long tail in popularity – and, if you’re judging daily podcasts based only on views per episode, well, those engagement numbers might be “low.”

A councilor in St. John’s, NL, Canada, has been suspended after citing comments made by a guest of Steven Bartlett. Diary of a CEOAnd presenting those claims as medical fact. These claims were made by Erica Komisar, an author and licensed clinical social worker. He is not a psychologist; And a registered psychologist interviewed by CBC News suggested that the claims made by Komisar were false.

Semaphore reports that The Atlantic is doubling the size of its video team. Downloads of the magazine’s podcast have increased by 50% compared to the previous year, and revenue has more than doubled.

How do people engage with podcast ads?

paid content

Podcast advertising has long struggled with measurement challenges. Listeners skip, multitask, or tune out, making it difficult to capture the true impact.

In YouGov’s US Podcast Advertising Report 2026, we go beyond the skip button to uncover what really drives effectiveness: how audiences respond to ads, which formats build trust, and what drives real-world action from discovery to purchase.

Based on a survey of 1,300+ US adults, including 800+ podcast listenersThe report reveals how people really engage with podcast advertising today.

We also explore the rise of video podcasts and how audio versus video consumption shapes engagement, trust and ad response among key audiences.

Download the full report to find out how podcast ads really perform and how they work.