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Thought Leadership Keys to 2026: Navigating a Seller’s Market, Standardized Measurement, and Going Vertical

Happy 2026! As the New Year kicks into high gear, it’s time to dust off the crystal ball and see what it might reveal about the media landscape this year.

Will we finally get standardized measurement? Will podcasters still pick video over audio? How should you navigate a seller’s market?

Find out as we make big, bold (and accurate) predictions for 2026. All on a new Media Roundtable: Special Edition.

Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) welcomes back a stacked team of podcast nostradamuses:

They’re talking: Audio’s Rise, Standardization (Finally!), Seller’s Markets, and more. Let’s dig in.

“ My prediction is: the buyer’s market has officially ended.” – Neal Lucey (EVP, Strategy & Product, Oxford Road)

Video Doesn’t Kill the Audio Star – Our first prediction is a move back to audio only for mid-tier podcasts. In short, the juice wasn’t worth the production squeeze for everyone. As a side prediction, video investment will increase for top shows, including in vertical podcast formats. Big opportunity for one of the major platforms to support vertical podcasts in 2026.

Measurement Standardization (Finally!) – This is the year for cross-platform standardization. We predict that 2 out of the 3 major podcast platforms will move towards standardization. Even bolder? We envision seeing some movement as early as Summer. In the meantime, if you share the dream of better measurement across all your podcast channels, keep making noise. It’s working.

Bargains in a Seller’s Market – We’re moving from a buyer’s to a seller’s market. As platforms fix measurement issues, brands will spend more and drive up prices. Two hedges against rising CPMs? 1. Lock in deals with your favorite shows early. 2. Look outside of the top 10% of podcasts. Programmatic buys on niche shows should be a strong value play in 2026.

Want more insights into what will surely be a pivotal year for the industry? Tune in to the full episode by clicking the link below.

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“ Is it the end of ads? No, but I do think that it’s potentially an end of an era.” – Courtney O’Connor (Director, Podcast Media, Oxford Road)

The End of Ads? – It sounds like a sensationalist take: could podcast ads see the same collapse as ‘90s banner ads? No, but at a minimum, guarding against increasing ad load is smart business (Podcasting was dragged for its ads during the Golden Globes). No one wants podcasts to become burdened with ads like radio. Marketers, check the ad load of your shows, and reward the networks who are keeping the percentage low.

PodFraud – We have two cases of advertising rule-breaking this week, but remember, fraud is an arrow. It points to value. Take the pay-to-play scandal in India, where people pay $15-30k to be a guest on a show: the value of the show has to be many times higher to justify the risk. On another note, if there’s a business for someone to strip out the ads and resell the shows, that’s a problem, but this points to the bigger issue of rising podloads. Again, the industry needs to manage ads or risk audiences opting out. In the meantime, marketers must work to make their ads compelling enough that no one would skip them. (Stumped? We can help.)

The Living Room Podcast – YouTube says couch podcast viewing hit 700M hours in October 2025. Giles’ rough math says that’s ~4% of CTV viewing, a staggering number. There’s one thing we don’t know: exactly how attentive is the watcher? Couch podcasts could be a source of active engagement, or background noise that might not even have someone in the room listening to it.. Our POV: if you can measure well, kick the tires on a campaign. Then you’ll know if the results justify the CPMs.

Want more insights from the forces shaping the industry? Tune in to the full episode by clicking the link below.

The Rise of Faith-Based Podcasts with the Hosts of Girls Gone Bible

What’s one podcast genre that’s successful for advertisers but is often overlooked?

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Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) welcomes the co-hosts of the hit, faith-based podcast Girls Gone Bible, Angela Halili & Arielle Reitsma.

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“There’s no dollar amount that’s worth doing anything that goes against our core mission.” – Angela Halili (Co-Host, Girls Gone Bible)

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“The biggest unlocker of revenue is some way to measure the host-read embedded ads on YouTube.” – Pete Birsinger (CEO & Founder, Podscribe)

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