This Week's Influencer: Downloads Are Out; Netflix’s Podcast Test Shows Life; Johnny Knoxville Has a Pod; and More…

For more than a year now, the Alliance for Measurement in Podcasting, or AMP, has been working to create new frameworks for podcast measurement. In this week’s Media Roundtable, we’re announcing some of our latest findings.

Dan Granger (CEO & Founder, Oxford Road) and Giles Martin (EVP-Strategy, Oxford Road) welcome Pete Birsinger (CEO & Founder, Podscribe) to discuss the problem with downloads, AMP’s internal tug-of-war, and the new standard metrics that could help grow the industry.

“This type of evolution should put podcasting on a better footing to compete with other media channels for an enormous part of advertising dollars.” – Pete Birsinger (CEO & Founder, Podscribe)

Downloads and Doubt – We don’t measure downloads because we love them; we use them because they were the best metric we had when podcasting began. The problem is it’s a wobbly foundational metric, one that invariably leads to speculation and uncertainty about actual consumption. It gets all the more confusing when you factor in different metrics across multiple channels. Moving away from downloads and toward a consumption-based metric will remove doubt from pricing. As Pete puts it, “ The fewer assumptions we have to make, the more accurate the results will be.”

The Tug-of-War – Part of the beauty of podcasting is that no one entity or company owns the space. That also means you need cross-partner alignment and adoption in order to enact change. With AMP, stakeholders like Oxford Road, Podscribe, and Spotify all had a hand on the wheel, with the shared goal of finding a favorable outcome. While getting this many collaborators to agree might take more effort, the upside is that this result is acceptable to all and gives us a real chance at industry-wide implementation. (Want to join us? Check out the AMP Accords.)

Two Simple Metrics – Out of this tug-of-war, AMP aligned on two major metrics. The first is that a play is when a user consumes at least 30 consecutive seconds of a podcast (audio or video). The second is that an ad impression is when any portion of an ad is shown to a user. If we adopt these, we take the guesswork out of ad delivery, which should be table stakes for any marketing channel. Making podcasting more buyer-friendly by removing doubt will help unlock the industry’s next billion dollars.

For more insights from AMP’s first major announcement and why it matters, check out the full episode below.

The Classifieds

Breakin’ News 2: Electric Boogaloo

Network: MeidasTouch Network / Monthly Downloads: 150k

The 24-hour news cycle is simply too slow for Gen Z, and thanks to influencers like Aaron Parnas, younger audiences now get their breaking news on demand. MeidasTouch Network has partnered with this trailblazing journalist for Breakin’ News 2: Electric Boogaloo, a show that brings Parnas’ timely updates to an RSS feed. Now, anyone and everyone can hear about developments in the Middle East, upcoming midterm elections, or the latest news from Capitol Hill.

Though the episodes are only 10 minutes long, the content is jam-packed with contextual reporting that delivers a nuanced take on ever-evolving events. If you’re looking for tune-in value, Breakin’ News 2: Electric Boogaloo is very promising. Similar short-form news podcasts have done especially well for B2B advertisers looking to reach an engaged audience of self-starters who want to stay informed. Gain your own perspective at the link below.

Get The Deal

Hi, I’m Johnny Knoxville, and This is Your Next Test

Network: Headgum / Monthly Downloads: 30k

They’ve faced alligators, industrial-sized slingshots, bulls, tasers and more, but now it’s time for the Jackass gang to face their biggest challenge yet: A podcast. In conjunction with the upcoming release of Jackass: Best and Last, frontman Johnny Knoxville and director Jeff Tremaine are getting wistful and a bit nostalgic about their decades-long careers, and they’re recording it all for posterity.

In this forthcoming series from Headgum, they sit down with past and current team members, who talk through some of their more grueling stunts, while offering their perspectives on the franchise’s legacy (initial guests include Oscar-winning filmmaker Spike Jonze and beloved Jackass mainstay Wee Man). The show promises to inspire many viral moments, courtesy of the gang’s need to prank one another as often as possible. Millennial, male-skewing advertisers are highly recommended to test this, especially those who work well in the TV & Film genre. Be a smartass and click below for additional details.

Get The Deal

In Case You Missed It

Even as Video Grows, Audio Still Remains King

Edison Research’s new Podcast Consumer 2026 study provides some major new insights into evolving consumption trends. According to Edison, 57% of those surveyed say they both listen to and watch podcasts, while 21% are audio-only consumers, and just 2% exclusively watch video (YouTube is the video service used most often among weekly consumers). The big takeaway? Consumers haven’t written off audio podcasts, and neither should you. Instead, take the opportunity to plan podcasts as a flexible creator channel that can move across numerous devices and platforms while still being built on the intimacy and authenticity that made the medium work in the first place.

Programmatic Demands Only the Best Inventory as Fuel

The ANA’s latest Programmatic Transparency Benchmark (report available for members) finds that programmatic efficiency improved in Q1 2026, with its TrueAdSpend metric rising from 36.3% to 43.3%. But those gains were uneven: Top-performing advertisers converted 54% of spend into quality impressions, compared with 32.1% for lower-performing advertisers. The difference was media quality, with stronger buyers using tighter supply paths, better measurement coverage, and more curated inventory. The ANA’s report shows the real advantage goes to advertisers that manage supply quality, measurement coverage, and curation. That matters as programmatic audio grows as a buying method. Premium audio should benefit, but only when the inventory is curated and advertisers resist treating every impression as equal.

Netflix and Tubi’s Podcast Bet Seems To Be Paying Off

Edison Research’s first wave of Podcast Metrics data, including Netflix and Tubi, shows that 14% of weekly podcast consumers have used Netflix to consume podcasts, while 4% have used Tubi. Those numbers are still low, but the early traction is meaningful as more podcast publishers and streamers strike distribution deals, including Netflix’s reported deal with Jay Shetty’s On Purpose and Tubi’s partnerships with Audiochuck and SiriusXM. The data suggests streaming platforms are beginning to establish a role in podcast discovery and consumption. The Netflix and Tubi numbers are small compared with YouTube and Spotify, but small can be meaningful: If 14% of weekly podcast consumers have already used Netflix for podcasts, that’s enough to take the platform seriously over the long term. Importantly, talent-led podcast IP is becoming more portable across audio, video, social, streaming, and CTV. For marketers, the opportunity is to build around the host-audience relationship regardless of platform.

A “StoryWorth” Telling That is Criminally Good

This week’s #STLR belongs to Taylar Fetzner and Morgan Harris of the Creeps and Crimes podcast, who deliver a heartfelt and genuinely memorable read for StoryWorth. They open with a powerful truth that instantly resonates with their audience: Namely, that while most Father’s Day gifts eventually get forgotten, family stories last forever. The hosts do an excellent job of breaking down StoryWorth’s simple yet accessible process, highlighting features like voice recordings and guided phone calls in a way that feels practical and thoughtful rather than promotional.

What truly makes this read shine, however, is Morgan’s personal story about her father, as she recounts how he rescued a man from a burning car as a teenager. It’s a vivid anecdote she may never have known about without StoryWorth, and it demonstrates how StoryWorth can help preserve crucial moments from a family’s past. The hosts’ enthusiasm feels completely earned because it stems from real experiences, making the recommendation feel less like an advertisement and more like advice from trusted friends. By the time they reach the call to action, listeners aren’t just thinking about Father’s Day; they’re thinking about the stories they want to preserve for generations to come.

Listen Here

OXFORd In The News

AMP’s Cross-Platform Alternative to the Download

Forbes‘ Frank Raccioppi broke the story on AMP’s first major announcement: A unified impression framework for audio and video podcasting, ratified by all task force members with no dissenting votes. Sounds Profitable, Podnews, and Podcast News Daily all picked up the story, each focusing on AMP’s four new cross-platform exposure definitions. These will give advertisers a single consumption-based metric to compare audio and video inventory, without forcing platforms to abandon existing systems. The full framework and implementation guide will be unveiled at Oxford Road’s CAO Summit, which kicks off July 22nd.