From our daily newsletter, the latest from podnews.net with Podscribe. No, YouTube is not dominating podcasting. Those are the words of Paul Rismandel from research company Signal Hill Insights, showing plenty of evidence that the majority of podcast consumers are still using an audio-first platform most often, and that it's time to tone down the discourse. Well, in April, we shared data from PodTrack, which we're sharing again today, which appears to back up the point.
For consumption rather than people, YouTube is not, number one. Libsyn has made its automatic podcast ads programmatic advertising available for all podcasters, removing the previous required minimum of 2,000 downloads. The company says that creators have complete control over the categories of ads that run. There's a revenue calculator to see how much you can earn. Other companies have also dropped minimum requirements.
Tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams are to launch a video podcast on X, says Adweek. Meanwhile, YouTube contributed $55 billion to the US GDP in 2024. That's the equivalent of 49,000 full-time jobs, says the company. The popular show Smartless has launched a mobile phone company. The service is smart because it offers less data, the argument being that most people will have Wi-Fi access, so don't need that much.
The show's hosts say that the Smartless podcast reaches millions of Americans a month, Podscribe's audience data suggests more than 2 million, and almost everyone uses their phone to listen. The Parapod Podcast Awards have been launched. It's the third year for the awards, which honour the best and most compelling voices in the paranormal, supernatural and unexplained podcasting genres. Descript has added a teleprompter in its latest release.
Bloomberg's scoop back in April that Tencent Music was buying Himalaya for $2.4 billion was about right. Tencent's note to the SEC says the deal has now been done with $1.2 billion worth of cash, plus 5.2% of shares currently worth $1.5 billion. Digital Music News notes that Sony Music owned a significant amount of Himalaya shares. Acast has shared another case study of successful podcast advertising, this time for EuroMillions. The campaign drove a 10% year-on-year rise in sales.
And Apple Insider highlights how a new feature called Local Capture on the forthcoming iPadOS 26 makes the iPad great as a podcast recorder. Meanwhile, on Apple's developer website, the icon chosen to highlight the flexibility of Apple's new visual treatment is the one for Apple Podcasts. In People News, Nick Simpson has been made Strategic Partnerships Director at Formidable, an IP brand partnership company in the UK.
I'm assuming it's pronounced formidable and not formidable, although, frankly, that might be better. And in podcast news from the Financial Times and Pushkin Industries, Hot Money, Agent of Chaos, is back for a third series. The news season uncovers how Jan Marsalek, the former chief operating officer of Wirecard, who once stood as a model of German corporate success, was revealed to be a Russian spy, offering a rare look into the workings of Russian power and espionage.
And this podcast is sponsored by Podscribe. Just launched is the Quarter 2 2025 Podscribe Performance Benchmarks. And for the first time ever, you can see international benchmarks in that report and the top performing audience segments. You can download the report today to learn how to maximise your campaign performance. There's a link in the show notes. And that's the latest from our newsletter. To read all the stories and subscribe for free, we're at podnews.net.