Sounds Profitable, the trade association for the podcasting industry, released the first part of The Podcast Landscape 2026 on October 1, 2026. The survey of 5,473 US adults describes an audience of stable size and shifting habits: reach is flat at 74%, video viewing is up, dedicated podcast apps are ceding ground, and Netflix, in its first year carrying podcasts, was named by 21% of podcast consumers as a platform used in the past 12 months.

In Short

A trade group asked more than 5,000 Americans how they use podcasts and found that about the same share of adults consume them as in earlier years, but more now watch them and fewer rely on apps made only for podcasts. That matters to anyone who makes, sells or buys podcasts, because more of the places where shows are found and watched are platforms built for something else, such as YouTube and Netflix. What changes is the map rather than the headcount: total reach is flat, while the mix of platforms and screens is not.

The survey and its backers

Sounds Profitable fielded the study in August 2026 among 5,473 US adults aged 18 and older, weighted to US Census targets, according to the methodology slide of the report. A 2025 wave of 5,034 respondents, run with the same methodology, supplies the year-over-year comparisons. Figures are population-weighted and rounded to whole numbers, so components sometimes miss their totals: in 2025, weekly consumers at 38% and past-30-day consumers at 17% add to 55%, against a reported monthly figure of 54%.

The slides carry the logos of betterhelp, NPR, ESPN Podcasts, American Public Media, SiriusXM Podcast Network and DAX (Digital Ad Exchange) as sponsors, with Signal Hill Insights credited beside Sounds Profitable in the footer. Several of those names publish podcasts or sell advertising in them. The materials do not state a margin of error or the survey mode, and the bases change from chart to chart - all US adults for some, people who have ever consumed a podcast for others, weekly consumers for the hours data. The deck says "consumers" throughout and never "listeners", a choice that fits a category in which video is growing.

Part One covers core usage. According to Sounds Profitable, parts on discovery, advertising, content and AI will publish separately "in the coming weeks", and a closing slide lists Super-Spenders, Podcasting and AI, The Role of Clips, and Politics and Podcasting as coming soon. One small discrepancy: the deck cover is dated September 2026, while the press release and the web article carry October 1, 2026.

Sounds Profitable describes itself as a trade organization with a newsletter of 10,000 subscribers and more than 200 partners. PPC Land reported in May 2026 that Muck Rack joined a partner network of nearly 210 organizations.

Reach holds while newcomers refresh the audience

The headline numbers barely moved. In 2026, 74% of US adults have consumed a podcast, 55% did so in the past month and 39% in the past week. The 2025 figures were 75%, 54% and 38%, and the 2024 figures 74%, 53% and 37%. The share who have never consumed a podcast stood at 26% in 2024, 25% in 2025 and 26% this year. Familiarity with the word itself slipped from 96% to 93% of adults.

Underneath that stability, the composition changed. Among people who have ever consumed a podcast, 34% began within the past year, up from 28% in 2025. The share who began within the last 30 days rose from 8% to 11%. Longer-tenured groups shrank: those with one to two years of consumption fell from 29% to 26%, and those with three to five years from 23% to 20%. Because the two waves are separate samples, the data cannot show whether newcomers replaced people who stopped consuming or arrived on top of a steady base.

Monthly consumers also differ from adults generally. Sounds Profitable's index, where 100 matches the adult population, puts consumers aged 25-34 at 128 and those aged 35-44 at 120, against 60 for adults aged 65 and over, who make up 20% of adults but 12% of monthly consumers. Men index at 110 and women at 90, Hispanic or Latino adults at 117, holders of a bachelor's degree or higher at 115, and adults with children under 18 at home at 123 (38% of monthly consumers against 31% of all adults). The slide headline calls 55+ "a growth opportunity". A separate survey of people aged 12 and over found monthly podcast use among those 55 and older at 44%, up from 21% in 2023.

Netflix enters the platform list, YouTube keeps its lead

The platform data come in two forms, and they tell different stories. The first asks which platforms a consumer used for podcasts in the past 12 months, with multiple answers allowed and a base of everyone who has ever consumed a podcast. On that measure YouTube leads at 63%, followed by Spotify at 33% and Netflix at 21%. YouTube Music (17%), Apple Podcasts (15%), Amazon Music (14%), Pandora and iHeartRadio (11% each), and HBO Max, Tubi and a podcast's own website (9% each) complete the list. Counting YouTube and YouTube Music together without duplication gives 68%.

The question is new this year, so no year-over-year comparison exists. The deck notes that Netflix began carrying podcasts in 2026 and that this is its first year in the category. By PPC Land's arithmetic, 21% of the 74% of adults who have consumed a podcast is roughly 15% to 16% of all US adults.

The second measure asks for the single most-used platform, and here Netflix registers at 5%. YouTube held at 40% in both years. Spotify moved from 18% to 17%, Apple Podcasts from 11% to 8%, SiriusXM from 4% to 2%, and YouTube Music, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio each from 4% to 3%. The deck defines podcast-native as Apple Podcasts, Pocket Casts, Overcast, Podcast Addict, Spreaker, TuneIn, NPR, SoundCloud or the podcast's own website; the share of consumers naming one of those as most used fell from 19% to 15%.

One caveat sits in the deck itself. The 2026 response list added Netflix, Tubi, Apple TV and HBO Max, which "mechanically dilutes other options slightly". Part of the decline in other platforms' shares may therefore come from a longer menu rather than from changed behaviour, and the report does not separate the two. What does the gap between 21% and 5% mean? On the survey's own arithmetic, many consumers have used the service for podcasts without making it their main route.

Tom Webster, Partner at Sounds Profitable, put the findings in terms of openness. "Podcasting's audience isn't standing still," he said in the press release, noting that "platforms like Netflix are changing where people find and consume podcasts". He added that the opportunity "is to embrace new platforms without sacrificing the openness and accessibility" that allow independent creators to reach audiences wherever they choose. A related Sounds Profitable article, listed on the report's web page, frames the same tension as a question: "Podcasting was built without gatekeepers, so what does it mean when the third biggest place people find podcasts is gated?"

The catalogue behind the 21% was assembled over roughly a year. Netflix and Spotify agreed in October 2025 to distribute video podcasts, covering 17 properties from Spotify Studios and The Ringer with a US start planned for early 2026. In August 2026, iHeartMedia put two Martha Stewart shows on Netflix under an exclusive video arrangement, while the audio versions stay in open RSS feeds. Other services are moving too: Disney+ and Hulu received six iHeartPodcasts titles from August 14, 2026.

Video viewing grows, extreme listening weeks thin out

Among people who have ever consumed a podcast, 44% watched a video podcast in the past week, up from 40%. The share who watched in the past 30 days held at 22%, and the share who have never watched one dropped from 14% to 10%.

Expectations moved in step. Among adults familiar with the word podcast, the share expecting audio only fell from 21% to 17%, while those saying a podcast can be either audio or video rose from 25% to 29%. The remaining categories add up to the 83% that the press release describes as believing video can be part of the format. In June 2026, a separate Sounds Profitable study, the Podcast Atlas, surveyed more than 5,000 US consumers and found that 73% would follow a creator from audio to video.

Video does not mean exclusive viewing. Among past-week viewers, 29% reported spending 76% to 100% of their podcast time on video (32% in 2025), while 24% spent less than a quarter (22%). The method changed between waves: 2025 collected banded answers, while 2026 collected a 0-100 slider that was then banded to match.

Supply is catching up with that demand. Apple said in February 2026 that Apple Podcasts would support HLS video, with Acast, ART19, Omny Studio and SiriusXM as initial hosting partners. Acast reported in July 2026 that more than 180 shows and 1,000 episodes were live with video on Apple Podcasts.

The hours data carry the report's most unusual finding. The typical weekly consumer spent 4.0 hours a week in both years, but the mean fell from 6.3 hours to 5.7. At the 90th percentile weekly hours went from 15 to 12, while the 95th held at 20. The share reporting 16 hours or more dropped from 9% to 6%, and the mean among those below 16 hours barely moved, from 4.7 to 4.6. Weekly consumers who watched a video podcast averaged 5.9 hours, down from 6.9, whereas those who did not watch averaged 4.8 in both years; the video group grew from 72% to 77% of weekly consumers.

Sounds Profitable reads the pattern this way: "Very long listening weeks are a background-audio behavior." Watching, the deck argues, is a foreground activity, so extreme weekly totals become rarer as consumption moves to video and television. It also says the decline appears within every tenure group, and adds a limit: the hours are self-reported, and some of the change at the high end may reflect how people estimate ambient listening against on-screen sessions.

Television gains while phones hold

Smartphones remain the main device. Grouped by category, smartphones were the most-used device for 58% of consumers in 2024, 59% in 2025 and 57% in 2026. Desktops and laptops slid from 16% to 14% to 13%. Tablets stayed at 9%, cars moved from 6% to 6% to 5%, and smart speakers from 2% to 1% to 1%. Smart TVs were the only category to gain, at 8%, 9% and 12%.

Among single devices, the iPhone fell from 34% to 32% while the Android phone held at 25%. The television gain falls within connected television, where the press release calls the shift "particularly evident". Among smart TV consumers, YouTube's share of podcast apps fell from 76% to 71%, Netflix rose from 10% to 12%, Spotify fell from 7% to 4%, and Tubi, new to the list, registered 3%. Apple Podcasts held at 2%.

A base discrepancy deserves a note. The slide describes its base as consumers who use more than one app for podcasts on a smart TV, whereas the press release refers to "smart TV podcast consumers" - two descriptions that would cover different groups.

PPC Land has tracked the same direction in other data. Edison Podcast Metrics, cited in a VAB report, put the share of weekly consumers aged 13 and over using a television for podcasts at 1% in 2021, 4% in 2022, 6% in 2023, 7% in 2024, 11% in 2025 and 13% in the first quarter of 2026. The measures differ - any use of a television against the single most-used device - but both series point the same way. Nielsen's Media Distributor Gauge, meanwhile, put YouTube at 13.8% of US television watch-time in May 2026, against 8.0% for Netflix.

Habits, company and creation

Loyalty to a platform is high and stable: 65% of consumers use the same platform for all of their favourite podcasts, against 64% in 2025.

Among monthly consumers, the number of shows followed shifted slightly towards the low end. Those following one show rose from 11% to 15%, while the two-, three- and four-show groups each slipped by one or two points. The press release summarises the typical monthly consumer as following two or three. Consumption of regularly publishing podcasts reached 80% (79% in 2025) and limited series 39% (38%); of limited-series consumers, 71% seek a replacement when a series ends, compared with 75% in 2025.

The social side of the habit is where the report points in two directions. Co-consumption, meaning listening or watching with others, rose: 40% of consumers at least occasionally do so, up from 37%. Those who always do rose from 4% to 6%, and those who do so most of the time from 10% to 12%. Where others are present, one other person accounts for 70% of cases (73% in 2025).

Yet the share of all adults who say people in their social circle consume podcasts fell. Those naming any such person dropped from 75% to 70%, with friends down from 62% to 55%, family from 55% to 50%, acquaintances from 39% to 34% and co-workers from 36% to 33%. The press release, which highlights the rise in co-consumption, does not mention the decline in social-circle exposure.

Motivations changed little. Discussions on topics of interest remained the top reason, rated very or somewhat important by 79% of consumers (83% in 2025), followed by travel or car journeys at 64% and walking or exercise at 62%. Programs accompanying TV or movies edged up from 40% to 43%, and new hobbies from 52% to 55%.

On creation, 83% of consumers have never made a podcast, unchanged from 2025, while those currently creating audio rose from 3% to 5%. The deck labels the figures self-reported and an upper bound on active creators.

How the figures sit against other research

The report's reach numbers run below those of the Infinite Dial. The Infinite Dial 2026, presented on March 12, interviewed 2,050 people aged 12 and over in January 2026 and found 58% listening monthly, equal to 167 million people, and 45% weekly, against 55% and 39% for adults 18 and over in the Sounds Profitable survey. The age floor differs, and the Sounds Profitable materials state neither the survey mode nor a margin of error, so no like-for-like reconciliation is possible.

Platform shares line up more closely. In the Infinite Dial coverage, Edison Podcast Metrics put YouTube at 39% as the primary service among weekly consumers, Spotify at 20% and Apple Podcasts at 11%; Sounds Profitable's most-used shares among all consumers are 40%, 17% and 8%. On video, the Infinite Dial found 57% of ever-consumers had both listened and watched, and among weekly consumers 26% did both, 13% listened only and 6% watched only. A spring 2026 Cumulus and Signal Hill study cited in the VAB report found 80% doing both, 12% listening only and 8% watching only. Each study words the question differently, so Sounds Profitable's 44% past-week viewing figure cannot be stacked directly against them.

What the platform mix means for measurement and advertising

Podcast counting rules were built around audio downloads, and the changing platform mix now tests them. IAB Tech Lab finalised version 2.3 of its podcast measurement guidelines on September 29, 2026, and the final rules cover video delivered through open RSS feeds or server-side file delivery, while episodes distributed through Netflix fall outside them. Version 3.0 is planned for mid-2027. The July 2026 draft had already pulled video podcasts under the same download-counting rules. For a platform used by roughly one in five podcast consumers, as Sounds Profitable's figure suggests, the counting framework currently stops at the platform's edge.

Monetisation on video is also uneven. A MillionPodcasts study circulated on August 10, 2026 found that 77% of 34,208 video podcasts carry no advertising. The VAB report that PPC Land covered on September 15 projected podcasts reaching 48% of US digital audio ad spend by 2030 and cited Podcast Atlas data showing 15% of consumers making an immediate purchase after a video podcast ad against 10% after an audio ad. Whether the survey's flat reach and growing video share translate into those outcomes is a question Part One does not address, because advertising findings sit in a later release. Sounds Profitable's earlier Advertising Landscape UK, published May 21, 2026, found 44% of UK listeners recalling a purchase after hearing a podcast ad; no equivalent US figure appears in this installment.

Read narrowly, Part One records an audience of the same size with different entry points: newcomers making up a third of consumers, video taking a larger share of weekly viewing, and television the one device gaining ground. Whether those entry points are open or closed - the distinction Webster raises - determines who can count the audience, who can sell against it and who can see where it came from.

Timeline

Summary

  • Who: Sounds Profitable, the podcasting trade association, with research partner Signal Hill Insights and sponsors including betterhelp, NPR, ESPN Podcasts, American Public Media, SiriusXM Podcast Network and DAX. Tom Webster, Partner at Sounds Profitable, is the named spokesperson.
  • What: Part One of The Podcast Landscape 2026, covering core US podcast metrics: reach of 74% ever, 55% monthly and 39% weekly; Netflix named by 21% of consumers as a platform used in the past 12 months; 44% of consumers watching a video podcast in the past week; podcast-native apps down to 15% as most-used platform.
  • When: Released October 1, 2026, from a survey fielded in August 2026, with later parts due in the coming weeks.
  • Where: United States, based on 5,473 adults aged 18 and over; the press release carries a Boston, MA dateline.
  • Why: The annual study tracks how audiences find and consume podcasts, and this installment records a stable audience moving towards video, television and platforms not built for podcasts, with consequences for measurement and advertising discussed in later parts.