Podcasts Move to the Living Room, and the Polished Studio Is Dying

Viewers watched more than 700 million hours of podcasts on living-room devices through YouTube in a single month last year, more than double the prior year, says YouTube's Stephanie Chan, who calls it "this medium of entertainment that is up there with premium content on TVs"; IAB and PwC put US podcast ad revenue at $2.862bn in 2025, up 17.6% year over year, with video now the leading consumption channel.