Paul Riismandel
In 2025 the Signal Hill Insights team surveyed nine times more video podcast consumers for brand lift studies than in 2024.
That’s just one of many changes we observed this past year. Overall we surveyed 29% more media consumers than the previous year, hitting 86,000 in total. The vast majority, 66,000, were monthly podcast consumers, an increase of 45% over 2024.
All of this direct feedback from real people helps us better understand how and why people consume podcasts and media, and gives us a glimpse at what to expect in 2026.
Trend #1: There’s No Arguing – Podcasts Are Video Now, and Brands Agree
In the April 2022 edition of the Cumulus Media / Signal Hill Insights Podcast Download we first observed YouTube taking over as the most used podcast platform in the US. At the time we were met with a fair amount of skepticism from some corners of the industry. Among the complaints, I heard that consumers didn’t understand the difference between a typical YouTuber, like Mr. Beast, and a podcast.
Additional research with video podcast viewers, like Sound You Can See, showed audiences weren’t confused about what a podcast is. Since then multiple other studies corroborated YouTube’s status (including The Canadian Podcast Listener and The Podcast Landscape). All the while, YouTube’s prominence continued to grow. The Fall 2025 Download shows it’s now most used by 42% of weekly podcast consumers – nearly 3x as many who use Spotify most.
Returning to our ad effectiveness work, this year 61% of our podcast brand lift studies included video. Two years ago, in 2023, that number was zero.
I won’t argue that a count of our brand lift studies represents the entirety of podcast advertising. However, it does represent a very radical shift in brand priorities. This enormous jump in demand for ad effectiveness research on video podcasts is an unmissable sign that brands take them very seriously (and want to measure the ROI of this investment).
Trend #2: Audiences Haven’t Lost Their Appetite for Narrative Podcasts
At the beginning of the year I examined the changes in podcasting over the previous decade, focusing on shifts in the types of podcasts topping the charts, and the correlating socio-economic shift among listeners. Long story short: as the podcast audience grows, it more closely reflects the full diversity of the population, especially when it comes to education and income. One apparent corollary to this is the rise in popularity for “chatcasts” like The Joe Rogan Experience.
At the same time – and despite some press reports – narrative podcasts, and the audience’s preference for them, aren’t “disappearing.” In fact, in this year’s Fall Download weekly podcast consumers said they spend 54% of their time with narrative podcasts. Though video has been cited as a culprit in their supposed demise, that time spent remains constant among those consumers who say they prefer “video [podcasts] you actively watch.”
How do we square this circle?
As the rise of video demonstrates, those of us in the podcast industry, or who are long term fans of podcasting, are going to consistently have our conceptions and assumptions challenged. Put another way, we can ill-afford to be precious about how we define “podcast” or “narrative podcast.”
For the Download we defined a narrative podcast as, “ones that focus on telling a story in a documentary style and often feature a host who narrates the story.” Let’s compare that to what’s popular.
In The Podcast Landscape 2025 we found comedy, political talk and true crimes to be the top three most consumed genres. Also in the top 10 is history. I’ll argue that true crime and history, together consumed by 44% of the monthly podcast audience, are fundamentally narrative. Serial was a true crime show, was it not?
Crime Junkie came in as the second most consumed podcast, and every episode is dedicated to detailing a specific crime. Yes, I understand there are purists who will chafe at equating Crime Junkie’s conversational approach to Serial’s documentary reportage. But does that difference make Crime Junkie any less about narrative and storytelling?
Also in that top 20 we have Dateline NBC, Morbid, Mr Ballen, Dark History, Rotten Mango and Dark History. All storytelling, and therefore, narrative podcasts. I think there’s a case to be made that Stuff You Should Know at #8 can be considered narrative, too (see “A Quick History of the BBC”). And who’s to say that a narrative podcast can’t also be funny (Comedy, #1) or about the News (#4), or Sports at #5 (hello, 30 for 30)?
And let’s be clear that no top 20 list should be construed to broadly represent podcasting. In the Podcast Landscape list only the top 5 shows reach 2% or more of the audience. Podcasting’s tail is long, meaning there’s a room for a wide diversity of approaches, and narrative innovations.
Trend #3: There will be Surprises (Be Prepared)
I encountered more surprises in this year’s research than in any recent year. Here are three more things from our research that surprised me in 2025, and the lessons I take away.
Smart TVs Became the 2nd Most Used Device for Podcasts with Weekly Consumers
Combine the growth in video with the sheer ubiquity of smart TVs as the least expensive smart device in the home, and you have a trend that must not be ignored. The lessons: consumers vote with their dollars and their behavior. Just because you and your circle don’t watch podcasts on TV doesn’t mean it isn’t done.
French Canadian Podcast Consumption Rebounded
Last year we were left scratching our heads about why monthly podcast consumption among Canadian Francophones dropped two points from ’23 to 2024. This year saw not only a rebound, but a new high. The lessons: be careful about forecasting a trend based on one year’s result (we didn’t), and don’t stop asking, “why?”
The News Podcast Audience Flipped Its Political Allegiance
In the second quarter of 2024 41% of monthly news podcast consumers in the US said they were Democrats and 28% said Republican, according to the Triton Digital / Signal Hill Insights Demos+ survey. A year later we had a mirror image: 39% Republican and 32% Democrat. One possible explanation lies in The Podcast Influence survey of registered voter podcast consumers we conducted this fall with Voxtopica. As CEO Richard Fawal put it, “people who paid attention to podcasts became Republicans.” The lessons: New listeners and viewers are getting into podcasts every day, and they won’t necessarily share the same profile and preferences of the existing audience.
The biggest lesson of all: don’t get too comfortable. But, having the research and insights will make you prepared.
Want to stay ahead of the trends? The Signal Hill Insights team will help you leverage our industry-leading storehouse of podcast audience data to find undiscovered answers, or help you pursue fresh questions. Please, bring us your toughest inquiries.
