NEW YORK — Podcast audiences are moving freely between audio, video and social clips rather than treating them as separate media habits, according to Acast’s Podcast Pulse 2026.
The Acast-commissioned study, conducted by Differentology in August, surveyed 4,300 people ages 16 to 64 across 13 markets. Acast reports that 88% of surveyed podcast fans consume both audio and video podcasts, while 63% have started an episode in one format and finished it in another.
Radio Ink’s review of the study highlights another finding with direct relevance to broadcasters: 60% of podcast listeners said they consume radio ads at least half of the time, compared with 62% for audio-podcast ads and 58% for streaming-music ads.
The research is an Acast-commissioned survey of podcast fans, not a census of all audio consumers, so publishers should use it as directional audience research rather than a universal rule.
Sources: Acast Podcast Pulse 2026 release; Radio Ink, September 28, 2026.