Rethinking Audio vs. Video Podcasting, Creators Selling TV-Style, & More

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Triton Digital's Sharon Taylor pushes back on the video-first narrative, pointing to 2025 U.S. Podcast Report data showing 80% of monthly listeners both watch and listen while only 7% watch exclusively. Her advice is to treat video as an expansion of an audio show rather than a replacement for it.
• A growing number of creators and the companies representing them want to sell ads through TV-style upfront commitments, but unlimited, always-on creator inventory does not behave like a network's finite schedule. Experts told Digiday the model will likely work only for the top one percent of talent, sold through agencies and creator networks.
• The legal fight over the executive order targeting NPR and PBS funding has quietly ended, leaving in place a First Amendment ruling that permanently blocks key provisions of Executive Order 14290. It is a limited victory, since Congress had already rescinded the money and dissolved the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.