SiriusXM podcast ads grew 20% in Q3 with Giggly Squad on the roster
Giggly Squad, Serialously and The Bald and the Beautiful are the three podcasts SiriusXM chose to name when it reported its third quarter on Thursday, October 29, 2026. Podcast advertising at the company grew 20 percent from a year earlier, and executives told investors they are running short of ad slots to sell.
For listeners, nothing changes in the feeds this week. Giggly Squad and The Bald and the Beautiful came with ad sales and distribution deals, and the release lists Serialously as a portfolio addition without spelling out terms. In the two deals SiriusXM has detailed, the episodes stay on the apps they are on now and SiriusXM sells the ads inside them. What you will notice over time is more of those ads being sold as video and social placements, which SiriusXM says have more than doubled for three quarters in a row.
The three shows SiriusXM pointed to
The earnings release says the company “added Giggly Squad, Serialously and The Bald and the Beautiful to its leading podcast portfolio” and singles out Giggly Squad’s sold-out, multi-night run at Madison Square Garden as proof that a podcast can be monetized across audio, video and live events.
| Show | Hosts | The deal |
|---|---|---|
| Giggly Squad | Hannah Berner and Paige DeSorbo | Moved from Acast to the SiriusXM Podcast Network in September, with SiriusXM selling the ads worldwide (see our report on the signing) |
| Serialously | Annie Elise | True crime show listed among the portfolio additions in the Q3 release |
| The Bald and the Beautiful | Trixie Mattel and Katya Zamolodchikova | Three-year deal announced July 21: exclusive distribution, SiriusXM Media sells the audio and video ads, ad-free episodes for Podcasts+ subscribers |
The Bald and the Beautiful comes with the biggest published numbers. SiriusXM’s July announcement put the show at nearly 100 million lifetime downloads since its 2020 launch, with more than 770,000 subscribers on the Trixie and Katya YouTube channel. The show does not have a page on PlayPodcast yet.
The release also mentions Howard Stern’s expansion to HBO Max, which SiriusXM frames as a way to reach new audiences while keeping the live show exclusive to its own subscribers.
Why 20 percent counts as a slowdown
| Q3 2026 | Figure | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Total revenue | $2.15 billion | Down slightly |
| Net income | $317 million | Up 7% |
| Pandora and Off-Platform ad revenue | $419 million | Up 1% |
| Podcast advertising | Not disclosed in dollars | Up 20% |
| Full-year revenue guidance | About $8.55 billion | Raised by $25 million |
The 20 percent figure comes from the investor presentation and the earnings call rather than the release itself, which only credits “strength in podcasting, programmatic advertising and technology fees” for the 1 percent rise in Pandora and Off-Platform advertising. PPC Land notes that podcast advertising rose 37 percent in the first quarter and 30 percent in the second, so the growth rate has come down each quarter this year.
Management’s explanation, as summarized by MarketBeat: demand for podcast ads was strong and deal sizes got bigger, which left less inventory to sell. That matters because it explains why SiriusXM keeps signing shows. It needs more episodes to put ads in, and comedy and true crime shows with big YouTube audiences are the quickest way to get them.
The other number the company leaned on is reach. With its YouTube Audio partnership, SiriusXM Media now says it reaches about 255 million unduplicated monthly listeners, up from 170 million a year ago, and Chief Executive Jennifer Witz said the arrangement is “expanding our premium advertising inventory.”
We think this is mostly good news for the shows involved and neutral for their listeners. A network that is short of inventory has every reason to keep its new signings happy and to push them hard on video, which is where SiriusXM says the opportunity for Giggly Squad lies, and where The Bald and the Beautiful brings a YouTube channel with more than 770,000 subscribers. SiriusXM has not said what the deals mean for the number of ads in each episode.
Giggly Squad and Serialously keep publishing on their usual feeds, and both are on PlayPodcast. The Bald and the Beautiful is available in the SiriusXM app and on the major podcast platforms, with ad-free episodes for Podcasts+ subscribers.
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