This week in US podcasting: October 26 to November 1
The big stories of the week got their own articles: SiriusXM’s 20 percent podcast ad growth, PodcastOne weighing a sale, and The Rest Is Politics: US going live for the midterms. Here are the smaller ones from Monday, October 26 to Sunday, November 1, 2026, starting with a podcast network that is now also a television channel.
MeidasTouch is now a 24-hour channel on Prime Video
The MeidasTouch Podcast and its sister shows, including Legal AF, Katie Phang News and The PoliticsGirl Podcast, now run around the clock on a free, ad-supported streaming channel built with Swerve TV. The channel launched on Prime Video and Fire TV in the US on Tuesday, October 27, with live news programming on Mondays and Thursdays at 8pm ET and more platforms to follow. The podcast itself still drops new episodes on Tuesday and Friday mornings, with breaking-news updates in between. Audacy took over the network’s ad sales in August (our report).
Netflix hires an Apple Podcasts veteran to run its podcast push
Netflix has brought in Steve Wilson to oversee podcasts, a hire first reported by Bloomberg on Monday, October 26 and since confirmed by Netflix. TheWrap reports Wilson spent 2006 to 2020 at Apple as one of the earliest members of the Apple Podcasts team, then six years as chief strategy officer at Daylight Media, the studio formerly known as QCODE. Outlets differ on his exact title: TheWrap says he will lead Netflix’s podcasting division, while reports citing The Hollywood Reporter say he starts as a consultant on podcast acquisitions. Netflix’s video podcast shelf already includes The Breakfast Club, and Rob Lowe’s Literally! moves its video episodes there in December (our report).
No Agenda signs off after 1,916 episodes
No Agenda published episode 1916, titled “The Final Episode,” on Thursday, October 29. Co-host John C. Dvorak died in July, and Adam Curry has kept the twice-weekly show going since then. Podnews describes the finale, which runs more than five hours, as part tribute to Dvorak and part tribute to Curry. True to form, the final episode’s notes still list the listeners who paid for it by name.
1,778 copied podcasts found on Spreaker
Podnews found 1,778 duplicated podcasts on the iHeart-owned hosting platform Spreaker on Tuesday, October 27, including copies of Crime Junkie, Criminal, Hidden Brain and the Adam Carolla Show. The site imported its own feed with a free account and had monetization approved the same morning, which means ads can be sold inside someone else’s episodes. Spreaker said it “does not encourage or condone the uploading of content by anyone who doesn’t have the rights to it.” If you subscribe to a show and the artwork or publisher name looks off, check that you have the original.
Airwave takes its ad sales in-house
Airwave, the network behind Philosophize This! and TYT, will sell its own advertising from 2027, across host-read podcast ads, YouTube, live shows and custom deals. The company says its portfolio adds up to more than 120 million monthly video views and podcast downloads. Expect the same shows with a different name on the sponsor reads.
Acast grows 54 percent in North America
Acast, the Swedish hosting and ad company that lost Giggly Squad to SiriusXM in September, reported record quarterly revenue on Wednesday, October 28: net sales of SEK 802.3 million, up 25 percent, with North America up 54 percent. Listens and views grew only 4 percent, so the growth came from charging more per play. The quarter includes the acquisition of Backyard Ventures, a US network of more than 200 creators with a base in Austin.
On Air Fest books Rapinoe, Gupta and Dan Harris for its tenth year
On Air Fest returns to Brooklyn from February 23 to 25, 2027, and the first wave of live tapings includes Why Are You Like This with Megan Rapinoe, CNN’s Chasing Life with Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Ten Percent Happier with Dan Harris, WNYC’s On the Media and The Sam Sanders Show. It is the festival’s tenth edition.
Apple Podcasts splits Up Next into two lists
Smaller but useful: iOS 27.2, now available to everyone, changes the Up Next screen in Apple Podcasts so that “New Episodes” and “Continue Playing” sit in separate sections, per Podnews. If your queue has felt like one long pile, that is the fix.
Posted in: All articles
