by Gavin Gaddis
One of YouTube’s newly announced features is named Stations, acting as the platform’s answer to 24/7 programming channels found on free ad-supported TV (FAST) platforms like Tubi and Pluto TV. Stations will debut with coverage of this year’s Coachella festival. TV Companion will be a new system in which a user’s phone detects what is playing on their TV and allows them to interact with comments, control playback, and “dive deeper into content without missing a beat.” YouTube’s video-focused chatbot Ask, now on desktop and mobile, is coming to smart TVs with voice control.
Genuina Media co-founder and CEO David R. González says that despite sports podcasting’s success in the U.S., there’s not a single sports podcast in Spotify’s Mexico or Argentina top 200 charts. Football-obsessed Brazil only has three charting sports podcasts. He attributes the discrepancy to structural hurdles, not cultural ones. Unlike the U.S.’s diversified sports ecosystem, football (soccer) dominates LatAm, limiting fresh content for podcast coverage. Fantasy sports, a big driver for podcasting in the U.S., is not particularly embedded in local LatAm sports culture. LatAm sports podcasts can capitalize during the 2026 FIFA World Cup, with global attention from younger, digital-native, cross-border fans. González pitches that now is the best time to start a sports podcast in LatAm, and brands looking to advertise on them will find low CPMs compared to their potential and growing audience base.
Spotify Premium users in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Sweden now have access to the beta version of Prompted Playlist for podcasts. Users tap Create in the Spotify app to access a prompt editor and describe ideas to Spotify’s generative AI. The generated playlist can be tweaked to update daily or weekly on a specific day, emulating standard Spotify-curated playlists.
In the April 7 edition of Media, Built, Raizes reflects on the similarities between the intricacies of staging a satisfying Easter egg hunt and a successful content strategy. He recalls a client from earlier this year who had good press and solid performance in their first week, but then the audience fell off a cliff. Strong content aside, Raizes found each episode isolated from the others. Two content-independent changes revived it: brief cold opens to hook new listeners fast, and intro discussions of prior episodes for continuity. With that added continuity, the show creates an incentive for audiences to tune in each week and go through the backlog for more context. These changes, he says, netted a 264% increase in cumulative downloads and views.
Barrett Media reports that Audacy has announced a round of layoffs in its broadcast radio arms. In addition to individual layoffs, the company is getting rid of the Market Manager position, rolling those duties into Regional Presidents, Regional Vice Presidents, and Senior Vice Presidents/Sales leaders. According to Podnews reporting, it does not appear the podcasting side of Audacy has been impacted.
…as for the rest of the news:
Nominations are now open for the Quill Podcast Awards, marking its fifth year running. The deadline to submit nominations for the first round of voting is April 20.
The Soundwave Summit is back for its third year of bringing Canada’s indie podcasting community together. Saturday, May 9, the Summit will kick off, curated by community partners across Canadian audio and media, including The Sonar Network, Black Canadian Creators, and Canadaland.
Daylight has announced a strategic partnership with actor Michael Rosenbaum to bring his podcasts Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum and Talkville to the Daylight creator network.
Ryan Barker, sales manager at Sport Social Podcast Network, has a new piece discussing the diversity of sports fandom and how sports podcasts capture that specific passion with host-read ads.
Pierre Bouvard has a new research presentation pitching AM/FM radio as the political advertisers’ solution to rising YouTube and connected TV costs during the 2026 U.S. midterm elections.
Research Database Snapshot
What it says: Podcast holdouts are 82% White, versus ~61% of U.S. adults overall.
What it means: Podcasting continues to over-index with multicultural audiences.
