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How can you get your podcast promoted by Spotify? Today, Podnews speaks with Lizzy Hale, Spotify's Head of Podcast Editorial. The company has dozens of people based all over the world, watching for shows to highlight, and guiding Spotify's recommendation systems to reflect cultural moments. In an interview, Lizzy tells us how they aim to "give more creators a real shot at being discovered".
SiriusXM and iHeartMedia are in talks to merge, reports Variety. The news was initially the subject of a set of reports by Bloomberg ($).
- From a podcast point of view, merging the two would mean one network with 3,422 shows; representing around 207 million downloads+views a month. Spotify would remain bigger, suggests the Podscribe ranker - but that's only until SiriusXM starts representing YouTube's audio advertising later this year. Both iHeart and SiriusXM have, of course, significant radio businesses. RadioInsight suggests a merged company will be a juggernaut.
- SiriusXM obfuscates its podcast revenue by including Pandora in its data, but earned $2.1bn revenue from that business unit in 2025 (25% of overall revenue). iHeart earned $563mn from podcasting in 2025 (14.5% of overall revenue).
- The deal would force the hand of the UK's Global (the owner of DAX and Captivate). In 2020, the FCC allowed iHeartMedia to be 100% foreign-owned; and through its investment arm, Global owns 32% of iHeartMedia. On Mar 5 this year, the FCC allowed an application from iHeartMedia that Bahamas-based Global Media & Entertainment Investments Ltd’s shares could be transferred to the UK-based Global Media Investments Limited.
233 million people live in Nigeria - so podcasting could be massive in the country. As Tony Onwuchekwa writes for Podnews today for another of our market focus articles, 88% of Nigerian podcasts are in English; but almost a third have either podfaded or are on pause. The Nigerian Podcast Index has more data on shows produced in, or for, Nigeria; and highlights where the industry is strongest.

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