English
MIP London 2026: the $40 billion podcast industry is booming
The global podcasting industry is currently valued at roughly $40 billion and is growing at an astonishing 25% YoY, according to some consultancy companies. Yet, despite these staggering figures and an explosion in consumer listening habits—clocking in at 28 billion hours of audio consumption a year in the UK alone—the industry remains fundamentally ‘underinvested’.This paradox was the central theme of the «Video Podcasts 2026: Scaling Stories, Maximising Revenue» session held on the final day of MIP London. Moderated by Claire Tavernier, Chair of the Film & TV Charity, the panel brought together leading executives from Podimo, Acast, Patreon, and Little Dot Studios to dissect the shifting economics of digital audio and its rapid pivot to video.
For Georgia Brown, Chief Content Officer at Podimo (and former Amazon Studios executive), the pivot to podcasting was driven by undeniable consumer data. ‘It was really apparent to me a few years ago that there was a big gravitational shift in audience behavior, much like a few years before that when I noticed the shift on the streaming side’, Brown noted.
However, Brown pointed out a glaring discrepancy between audience engagement and financial return. ‘You look at that monetization gap and it doesn’t quite add up. There’s a massive monetization gap in terms of that consumption. How do you monetize that meaningful attention?’.
According to the panel, part of the problem lies with the traditional advertising industry, which Brown described as ‘just not sophisticated enough’ in certain markets to fully grasp the value of digital audio and video, often defaulting to heritage media buying habits.
LC