Study: Podcasts Reach Viewers Lost to Ad-Free Streaming

RADIO ONLINE | Tuesday, January 20, 2026 | 2:23pm CT

Cumulus Media | Westwood One

A new analysis from Cumulus Media | Westwood One and Signal Hill Insights underscores podcasts as a key channel for advertisers trying to reach consumers increasingly elusive to traditional television advertising.

The findings are drawn from the Fall 2025 installment of the Podcast Download series, based on a Quantilope study of 603 weekly podcast consumers conducted October 8-21, 2025. The research examines platform usage, content preferences, and media habits, with a particular focus on audiences migrating to ad-free video streaming services.

According to the report, podcast listeners are heavy users of video streaming platforms, with 94% having used a streaming service in the past month and 86% accessing ad-free services. Among weekly podcast consumers, Netflix leads usage at 88%, followed closely by Amazon Prime Video at 83%. While these platforms limit traditional ad exposure, the study notes that their audiences remain reachable through podcast advertising.

The research also highlights significant cord-cutting behavior. Thirty-five percent of weekly podcast consumers report having no pay-TV subscription, reinforcing podcasts' role as an alternative path to audiences no longer reachable through linear television.

Listening intensity further amplifies this trend. Heavy podcast consumers -- defined as those listening six or more hours per week -- are substantially more engaged with ad-free video streaming. This group spends an average of 6.5 hours per week with ad-free streaming services, compared to 5.8 hours among all weekly podcast listeners, and is 17% more likely to be a heavy ad-free streamer.

Additional insight from Screen Engine/ASI shows that the demographic profile of video streamers closely mirrors that of podcast and AM/FM radio listeners, not traditional linear TV viewers. Streamers tend to be younger, more likely to be employed, and more likely to have children at home, while linear TV audiences skew older.

Despite this alignment, media spending patterns remain tilted toward traditional television. Data from Kantar indicates that video streaming platforms spent $1.1 billion on linear TV advertising between January and November 2025 to promote subscriptions and programming, while allocating significantly less to podcasts and AM/FM radio.

The report argues that this imbalance presents an opportunity. With lower competitive clutter in audio, increased investment in podcasts and radio could deliver a higher share of voice -- an approach Kantar Millward Brown has linked to long-term gains in brand salience.

Read the entire blog post here.