Is anyone actually listening to podcast slop?
PLUS: The rise of direct-to-consumer sports broadcasting
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Is anyone actually listening to podcast slop?
From Bloomberg:
In the past nine days or so, 10,871 new podcast feeds have been created; approximately 4,243, or 39%, might have been AI-generated, according to the Podcast Index, an open-source platform that tracks the ecosystem …
Welcome to the modern era of podcasting in which thousands of new shows are released into the world every day with a sizable portion likely being AI-generated. Figuring out exactly which ones fall into that growing category is becoming more difficult just as the industry is starting to take this issue seriously.
Here’s the thing about podcasting — it’s still largely a word-of-mouth medium, meaning you typically subscribe to a podcast because you heard about it somewhere else. That’s why podcasters have always struggled with audience discovery, particularly with new shows. Podcasts just don’t go viral the way that other types of content goes viral.
But that dynamic also likely makes it hard for AI-generated podcast slop to gain traction. Many of these AI shows seem designed to game search results, but I just don’t think much podcast discovery is driven by people typing in generic search terms into their podcast players. And even with those kinds of searches, one would think the podcast players are sophisticated enough to give more weight to shows that already have listeners.
Could this slop, in aggregate, siphon off a lot of money from the podcast industry by simply running programmatic ads across thousands of shows? Maybe! But that just further supports my long-running argument that premium publishers were always dumb to embrace and legitimize programmatic advertising in the first place.
(BTW, I used a gift link so you can access that article for free.)
ICYMI: This social-first news outlet turned street interviews into a 600,000-subscriber YouTube channel
Roca News co-founders Max Towey and Max Frost explained how their popular Instagram account expanded into a newsletter, mobile app, and longform YouTube channel.
That case study actually sits behind a paywall, but if you’re not ready to subscribe, I also included it in an ebook that you can download over here.
Creators are launching their own sports leagues
Digiday published a fascinating deep dive on Baller League, an independent soccer league that streams games on its own YouTube and Twitch channels:
No ads during streams, no dependence on media rights and no off-the-shelf sponsorship packages. Instead, there are eight brand partners per market, all bespoke. Starck turns away brands that want stands and that want standard inventory. He tells them: “If you want to reach 45-year-old women, you shouldn’t partner with us.”
The stance seems to be working. The league is averaging over four million views on matchday live streams, according to its organizers. Revenue has doubled year on year for three consecutive years, though exact figures aren’t disclosed. Players earn either $400, $600 or $800 per game across three tiers – modest by any professional sports standards, though Starck says those rates double annually too.
This isn’t the only example I’ve come across of media entrepreneurs building their own direct-to-consumer sports leagues. In most cases, they’re not inventing a brand new sport, but instead drafting off the popularity of an already-existing one, often by introducing a unique set of rules.
The Creator Economy has radically changed college life
The Nation profiled several college girls who make up to $9,000 a month filming themselves eat enormous amounts of food:
When they decided to create a joint account to post more mukbangs, Enid joked, “We’re gonna go viral, and we won’t have to get stupid part-time jobs anymore.” But that’s exactly what happened. The hours were flexible, there was more room for creativity than most entry-level positions, and the pay was better. Audrey would choose mukbanging “definitely over a part-time job,” she says, and “if not already, it’s going to be a normal career path for our generation.”
Whenever I read articles like this, I’m struck by how foreign it would have seemed to a college student just 20 years ago. Back then, the path to a post-grad career was narrow: you hoped to land a nearby internship, then used that experience—and the connections you made—to try to secure a job after graduation.
Today, that dynamic has completely shifted. It’s never been easier for college students to start building a personal brand in their chosen field.
Take a fashion design student. There are thriving fashion communities across platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Substack, and it’s possible to start participating in them well before college—let alone graduation. Creating content doesn’t guarantee a job, but it does give you a meaningful edge over someone who’s only applying to listings on LinkedIn.
I was reminded of this earlier this week when I spoke to a group of journalism students. My advice was simple: start creating. Don’t wait for permission or a paycheck. You already have the tools to begin reporting on a beat you care about right now.
A sports franchise becomes a lifestyle brand
The Financial Times looks at a Como-based football club that’s leveraging its proximity to Lake Como to elevate its brand and court luxury partners:
Club executives have been positioning it less as a conventional football team dependent on match-day successes and more as a global lifestyle brand that has Lake Como — and fashion — at its heart. Under the club’s chief brand officer Rhuigi Villaseñor, a seasoned fashion industry creative director and club shareholder appointed in 2024, Como works with four high-profile brands on lines for fans, including Brioni for formalwear, Rhude on casual and streetwear, Hublot on luxury timepieces and Adidas on its technical kits, including a sailing collection called Lago di Como. The team also offers luxury lake experiences and has launched a private members’ club called, well, Club on the Lake …
Como’s majority owner is the Djarum Group, a cigarette conglomerate founded by two billionaire Indonesian brothers, Robert and the late Michael Hartono, who died in March. They acquired the club in 2019 through the group’s London-based media vehicle, Sent Entertainment, with a clear plan: to leverage Como’s location in one of Italy’s most recognisable destinations beyond football into other revenue streams such as fashion, entertainment, hospitality and tourism.
Reminds me of my interview with the head of content at SailGP, a league that also appeals to an affluent fanbase and is able to partner with luxury brands as a result.
The rise of direct-to-consumer sports broadcasting
From Front Office Sports:
The Braves took a somewhat unusual step by forming their own regional sports network, but already, the club says “the economics support our decision.”
The Braves say that despite a frenetic move this spring to form their own regional sports network, the MLB club is on pace to potentially surpass its prior broadcasting revenue from the embattled Main Street Sports Group.
Speaking to Front Office Sports, team president and CEO Derek Schiller said the club is already generating strong returns from BravesVision, the network formed in February in the wake of their departure that month from the FanDuel Sports Network parent company.
This definitely aligns with my long-running thesis that every major sports league will increasingly build direct-to-consumer businesses, to the point where it no longer makes economic sense to license broadcast rights to outside media companies. The NFL is the most popular entertainment franchise in the US, if not the world, so why is it allowing ESPN to serve as the middle man?
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This product review blog pivoted to video to protect itself from AI
Before launching his own media company, Andrew Palermo spent years working in marketing, where he saw firsthand how affiliate deals between brands and publishers actually worked. That experience sparked the realization that many of the sites earning commissions weren’t producing especially helpful or original content. In 2018, he decided to test whether he could do it better, launching Prudent Reviews as a side project. He started with products he already owned, with a focus on detailed, hands-on reviews. Flash forward eight years, and Prudent Reviews is not only one of the most authoritative home appliance review websites, but it also reaches a half million subscribers across YouTube, Tiktok, and Instagram.
In a recent interview, Andrew explained how his background in affiliate marketing shaped his approach to building Prudent Reviews, why Google’s shifting algorithms and the rise of AI forced him to rethink his entire traffic strategy, and how video ultimately became the foundation of a more durable media brand, one that’s mostly protected from AI chatbots.
Check out the interview on YouTube.
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