Audioboom today published a trading update for the first quarter of 2026, reporting revenue of $22.5 million - up 30% on the $17.3 million recorded in Q1 2025. The results come as the London-listed podcast company completes its first full quarter benefiting from the Adelicious acquisition, new tier-one creator signings, and a pair of newly launched commercial partnerships with Spotify and Apple that together target the persistent gap in video podcast monetisation.

The figures cover the three months ended 31 March 2026 and were released on April 16, 2026. They represent the most significant quarterly revenue increase the company has posted since the acceleration of its video strategy in 2024.

Revenue and gross profit

Quarterly revenue of $22.5 million was accompanied by gross profit of $4.8 million, a 41% increase on the $3.4 million recorded in Q1 2025. The gross margin expanded from 19.7% to 21.3%, which the company attributed to a sustained focus on higher-quality revenue streams and improved creator contracts. Gross profit growth outpacing revenue growth is a notable feature of the quarter - it indicates that Audioboom is not simply adding volume but selectively improving the quality of its inventory mix.

Showcase - Audioboom's higher-margin, technology-based global advertising marketplace - outperformed the wider business. According to the trading update, Showcase revenue grew 63% year-on-year in Q1 2026, driven by inventory growth and higher advertiser demand. That pace of growth is considerably faster than total company revenue growth of 30%, reinforcing the strategic priority attached to the marketplace model. Showcase has been a recurring theme in Audioboom's financial reporting, delivering record revenue of approximately $30.4 million for the full year 2025, up 31% from $23.1 million in 2024.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA profit for Q1 2026 reached $1.4 million, more than doubling from $0.6 million in Q1 2025. That represents growth of 118% and an adjusted EBITDA margin of 6.2%, compared to 3.7% in the prior year period. Operating expenditure remained stable at a monthly average of $1.1 million. According to the update, the company now benefits from high operational gearing, meaning that marginal revenue converts to marginal adjusted EBITDA at a rate in excess of 20%.

That figure is relevant for understanding how the platform model scales. With fixed infrastructure costs largely covered, incremental revenue flows disproportionately into profit - a characteristic of marketplace and technology businesses that Audioboom has emphasised in its financial communications for several quarters.

Group cash at 31 March 2026 stood at $5.5 million, up from $4.2 million at 31 December 2025. A further $3.4 million is available via an overdraft facility, giving the company total available liquidity of approximately $8.9 million at the quarter end.

Distribution hits 170 million, RPM falls

Average monthly distribution across the Audioboom Creator Network reached 170 million downloads and video views during Q1 2026, a 79% increase on the 94.8 million recorded in Q1 2025. Three factors drove that increase: the acquisition of Adelicious in July 2025, the fast-paced growth of Audioboom's video podcast output, and the addition of Crooked Media and RedHanded to the creator network.

The Adelicious acquisition, completed in July 2025, created what Audioboom described as the UK's largest homegrown podcast network. The combined operation substantially expanded available inventory, particularly in British content categories.

Revenue per mille - RPM, the average revenue per 1,000 downloads and views - came in at $45.10 for Q1 2026, down from $60.83 in Q1 2025. The company characterised this as expected, explaining that the volume increase in lower-yield video views and UK downloads depressed the blended rate. The trade-off is explicit in the update: Audioboom accepted a lower average yield in exchange for sharply higher distribution, on the basis that video monetisation infrastructure will improve the economics of that inventory over time.

The RPM compression is a structural feature of Audioboom's current phase of growth, not an isolated quarterly anomaly. As PPC Land reported in January 2026, audio-only content on the platform generates around $71 RPM on average, while video content generates less than half that figure. The gap is large. Closing it is the primary commercial rationale for the Spotify and Apple partnerships announced in recent months.

Spotify and Apple partnerships

Among the commercial highlights of the quarter, Audioboom confirmed the launch of partnerships with both Spotify and Apple. According to the trading update, these will support the development of Audioboom's video monetisation engine through expanded advertising and subscription opportunities.

The Spotify side of this arrangement has been developing since early 2026. Spotify cut eligibility thresholds for its Partner Program by 80% in January 2026, simultaneously introducing a Distribution API that enables creators hosted on Audioboom and four other platforms to publish and monetise video content on Spotify without changing their hosting arrangements. For Audioboom creators, that integration matters because Spotify Premium subscribers generate direct payouts through video engagement - providing income beyond the advertising revenue that has historically dominated podcast creator economics.

The Apple partnership adds a second major platform relationship on the subscription and advertising side. Together, the two partnerships expand the revenue pathways available to Audioboom's video creators beyond the company's own Showcase marketplace.

Stuart Last, CEO of Audioboom, commented: "2026 is off to a flying start for Audioboom with new major podcast signings, the launch of commercial partnerships in video, and excellent financial performance by all metrics."

On the distribution milestone and its implications, Last added in the update: "Optimising the yield from those new downloads and video views will be key to our future growth. Our new partnerships with Spotify and Apple provide us with enhanced monetisation options for our video creators, ensuring we are the go-to platform for podcasters whether in audio or video form."

Creator network expansion

The Q1 2026 signing of Crooked Media is notable given the political calendar in the United States. According to the trading update, Crooked Media - described as a leader in political podcasting - will be part of the Audioboom Creator Network through the 2026 US midterm elections and the 2028 Presidential election. That positions Audioboom as an advertising vehicle for politically engaged audiences during two of the most commercially significant periods in the US media calendar for news and political advertisers.

RedHanded and Hear Me Out were also added to the network during the quarter. Together with Crooked Media, the three new additions contribute more than 20 million downloads and YouTube views per month to the Audioboom Creator Network and more than 200 million monthly available impressions to the Showcase marketplace.

The update also noted renewals of key creator contracts during the quarter, including F1: Beyond the Grid, Soder, Zane and Heath: Unfiltered, The Sabrina Zohar Show, and Monsters Among Us. Renewals are financially significant because they maintain guaranteed inventory for the Showcase marketplace without requiring new acquisition spending.

Audioboom also hosted the inaugural UK Audioboom Upfronts in London during the quarter, presenting top British podcast talent directly to brands, agencies and advertisers. The event mirrors the structure of television upfront presentations and reflects a broader industry shift toward structured annual advertising commitments in podcasting.

Context: the video monetisation problem

The RPM decline at Audioboom sits within a wider industry challenge. Programmatic audio analysts at Triton Digital predicted in December 2025 that video would become a major discovery channel for audio in 2026, with short clips and companion visuals bringing new listeners to shows. The prediction captures why platforms are investing in video infrastructure even while accepting lower near-term yields.

PPC Land has tracked Audioboom's video trajectory across multiple quarters. In Q3 2025, video content accounted for more than 13% of Audioboom's overall business, with video RPM reaching $40.74. By January 2026, the company's own statements indicated that figure had declined further, with CEO Stuart Last noting video RPM had fallen below $35.50 at that point. Q1 2026's blended RPM of $45.10 reflects the full weight of that lower-yield video inventory within the distribution mix.

The underlying mechanics matter for understanding Audioboom's financial trajectory. The company's platform is structured around two primary monetisation products: a Premium Advertising Program that connects brands with podcast hosts directly for endorsement-style campaigns, and Showcase, the dynamic ad marketplace that places advertising programmatically across the network. Showcase's higher margin profile compared to direct sales is what makes its 63% year-on-year growth particularly significant for the full-year outlook.

As documented on PPC Land since the Adelicious acquisition, the combined UK operation substantially expanded Showcase inventory. More British shows mean more impressions available for automated placement - and the UK podcast advertising market remains at an earlier stage of monetisation than the US, creating a longer runway for yield improvement as the market matures.

Distribution and audience scale

According to the trading update, Audioboom's shows are downloaded 125 million times each month by more than 40 million unique listeners worldwide. Edison Research ranks the company as the fifth largest podcast publisher in the United States. The Creator Network's average monthly distribution of 170 million downloads and video views during Q1 represents a higher figure because it includes video views alongside audio downloads across the expanded network including Adelicious content.

Audioboom surpassed $325 million in cumulative payments to creators globally by September 2025, distributing those payments to more than 8,000 content creators over the past decade. Q1 2026's financial performance - particularly the 118% EBITDA growth - indicates the pace of that payout capacity is increasing as the platform scales.

Why this matters for advertisers and agencies

For the marketing community, several dimensions of the Q1 2026 update carry operational relevance. The 63% Showcase growth indicates that programmatic inventory within the Audioboom network is expanding faster than overall revenue, providing buyers with a growing pool of premium podcast supply accessible through automated channels. Showcase's architecture - connecting advertisers with premium podcast audiences through dynamic ad insertion - aligns with the broader shift toward programmatic efficiency in audio buying that has been documented across the industry.

The Crooked Media signing introduces substantial political and current affairs inventory ahead of the US midterms. Political advertisers, issue-based campaigners, and news-adjacent brands that want proximity to high-attention political content now have a direct route via the Audioboom marketplace. The show's audience is defined and engaged, which matters for targeting at a time when the broader advertising industry continues grappling with the 22-percentage-point gap between consumer audio attention - 31% of total media time - and advertiser budget allocation of 9%, a figure cited consistently in industry research throughout 2025 and into 2026.

The Apple partnership, though not detailed mechanically in the trading update, extends Audioboom's subscription revenue infrastructure beyond Spotify. Both major mobile platform operators are now formally engaged with Audioboom's video monetisation engine, which reduces the company's dependence on any single distribution channel for video creator income.

Looking at the full-year outlook, adjusted EBITDA for 2026 is now expected to serve as a more direct proxy for cash generation, following the conclusion of an onerous contract that had previously complicated the relationship between profitability and cash flow. With operating costs stable at $1.1 million per month and revenue growing, the financial gearing effect evident in Q1 - where EBITDA grew more than three times faster than revenue - provides a structural basis for continued margin expansion if distribution growth continues at its current rate.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Audioboom (AIM: BOOM), a global podcast company headquartered in London, led by CEO Stuart Last. Key new creator partners include Crooked Media, RedHanded, and Hear Me Out. Commercial partnerships involve Spotify and Apple.

What: A Q1 2026 trading update disclosing quarterly revenue of $22.5 million (up 30% year-on-year), gross profit of $4.8 million (up 41%), adjusted EBITDA of $1.4 million (up 118%), and average monthly distribution of 170 million downloads and video views (up 79%). The quarter also saw the launch of commercial video monetisation partnerships with Spotify and Apple and the signing of Crooked Media, RedHanded, and Hear Me Out.

When: The results cover the quarter ended 31 March 2026 and were published on April 16, 2026.

Where: Audioboom operates globally, with primary concentrations in the United States and the United Kingdom. The Adelicious acquisition created the UK's largest homegrown podcast network. The Spotify and Apple partnerships extend video monetisation to the two dominant mobile podcast distribution platforms worldwide.

Why: The update demonstrates the financial consequences of a strategic pivot toward video podcasting and platform-model scaling. Audioboom is deliberately accepting lower blended RPM as it absorbs large volumes of lower-yield video inventory, in exchange for a distribution base that the Spotify and Apple partnerships are designed to monetise more effectively over the medium term. The 63% Showcase growth and 118% EBITDA growth suggest the platform's fixed-cost base is generating significant operating leverage as revenue scales.

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