Youtube overtakes Spotify in the UK for podcasts

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• YouTube is now the most popular service used for podcast consumption in the UK - two years after YouTube edged out Spotify in the US for the first time. Apple Podcasts is the fourth most popular in the country, after BBC Sounds, the corporation's proprietary app. The data is from Edison Research at SSRS, who present The UK Podcast Consumer 2026 in a free webinar on Jul 16.
  • The data says 29% of weekly British podcast listeners, aged 15+, "choose YouTube as the service they use most to consume podcasts". 28% choose Spotify, 15% choose BBC Sounds, and just 10% use Apple Podcasts. This doesn't mean only 10% of podcast consumption happens on Apple Podcasts - just that Apple Podcasts isn't "the service they use most".
  • Apple Podcasts is still #1 for podcast downloads in the UK, however. Data from OP3, analysed by Podnews and shared today, shows that 37.5% of all downloads in the country go to Apple Podcasts; Spotify gets 31.7%, while Amazon Music is at 4.1%. But, there's a big caveat: data like this doesn't measure YouTube at all; and won't measure Spotify video, or BBC Sounds.
• The video push from Apple Podcasts "shows early promise", reports Bloomberg in a paid article. The article suggests that shows including video are seeing higher consumption numbers. Part of that is attributed to promotion by Apple within its app. However, Ashley Carman also reports that take-up of video by creators within Apple Podcasts is slow: only ten shows in the top 200 chart in the US currently offer video.
  • Part of the Bloomberg story suggests Acast is showing a 25% jump for consumption of shows with video on Apple Podcasts. The companies are working very closely - Apple Podcasts's appearance at The Podcast Show in London shared the stage with Acast executives and talent; Acast was quick to promote that it was earning revenue from video podcasts (revenue that Apple will share in); and Apple Podcasts's recent "Creators we love: UK & Ireland" feature only contained Acast video-enabled podcasts. 🤔
• Riverside has enabled integration with Apple Podcasts HLS video for those who host podcasts on the platform. The service is available for those on the Grow plan or above, and is touted to be part of Riverside 2.0 - the company's "biggest release yet".

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