How Is Podcasting Covering The World Cup?

The “whistleblowers” will cover the Cup

After the Whistle with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe returns

Apple News has announced that After the Whistle with Brendan Hunt and Rebecca Lowe will return on June 7 for a third season, which will feature the iconic duo’s passionate and hilarious coverage of the upcoming World Cup. Brendan Hunt, actor and co-creator of the Emmy Award-winning Apple TV series Ted Lasso, and Rebecca Lowe, host of NBC Sports’ Premier League coverage and cohost of FOX Sports’ FIFA World Cup 2026 coverage, will break down key games and recap the most exciting moments on and off the pitch.

“We are thrilled to bring After the Whistle back for a third season,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Services and Health. “Brendan and Rebecca have an incredible ability to capture the energy and passion of the World Cup. Their unique dynamic and deep love for soccer make this show an absolute can’t-miss for fans everywhere.”

“The World Cup is always unpredictable except for one thing — it’s guaranteed to repeatedly leave me an emotional wreck,” said Hunt. “Lucky for me, I’ll have these regular chats with the great Rebecca Lowe to get me through it. And maybe, just maybe, these same chats can help everybody else get through the tournament, too.”

“When Brendan and I get together to talk about the beautiful game, it usually includes hysterical laughter, a few tears, or something in between,” said Lowe. “And with one of the biggest sporting and cultural events of our lifetimes being our backdrop this time, I can’t wait for the emotional roller coaster that this World Cup will take us on, and getting to relive it all with Brendan on After the Whistle.”

Produced by Apple News, and presented by Verizon, After the Whistle will be available in audio and video on Apple News, Apple Podcasts, and wherever users get their podcasts.

Podcasting on the Pitch

The Rest Is Football (TRIF) is hosted by soccer icons like Gary Lineker, Micah Richards, and Alan Shearer. This highly popular show provides on-the-ground analysis and commentary during the tournament.

Advertising wins with World Cup coverage

Ahead of the next World Cup cycle, BBC Studios, NumberEight, Barometer and Veritonic released results from a U.S. hospitality campaign that used audience-led podcast planning to move beyond traditional football media targeting.

What is especially interesting is how brands are increasingly using measurable podcast audience strategies around major global events like the World Cup, rather than relying purely on contextual sports placements.

A major U.S. hospitality brand achieved a 45% increase in awareness among high earners, a 28% increase among parents and a 19% lift overall in a World Cup travel podcast campaign developed with BBC Studios, NumberEight, Barometer and Veritonic. The campaign combined premium football content, ID-less audience intelligence, bespoke brand suitability curation and independent brand lift measurement to show how podcast advertising can deliver measurable impact when the right partners align around a clear brief.

The campaign was designed to reach football fans planning travel, accommodation and group trips around the upcoming World Cup. Rather than relying only on a small number of well-known football podcasts, BBC Studios worked with its partners to expand reach across relevant podcast audiences while maintaining control over suitability and measuring brand impact.

The results align with the Global Podcast Advertising Compass 2025, an industry research report examining podcast advertising, audience behavior and brand suitability across key global markets. The report found that Travel is one of the top podcast advertising verticals, accounting for 9.6% of spend, while Sports is one of the strongest podcast categories for male listeners globally, representing 20% of male listening. Together, these findings point to a clear opportunity for brands to connect major cultural moments, audience intent and high-attention podcast environments.

The campaign delivered measurable awareness gains across key audiences. Brand awareness among high earners increased from 44% to 64%, representing a 45% uplift. Among parents, brand awareness rose from 39% to 50%, a 28% increase. Overall brand awareness increased from 37% to 44%, delivering a 19% lift across all respondents.

“This campaign shows what podcast advertising can achieve when strong content and the right partners come together around a clear brief,” said Alanna Vaughns, Revenue Partnerships Lead, Audio at BBC Studios. “Starting with our BBC football titles, we expanded to relevant audiences across a much wider set of podcasts with the right audience strategy, suitability and measurement.”

“Podcast advertising performs best when premium content, audience intelligence, and measurement work together,” said Abhishek Sen, CEO and Co-Founder at NumberEight. “By using ID-less Affinity Audiences and podcast lookalikes, this campaign was able to find relevant football and travel audiences beyond the obvious shows, proving that brands can scale podcast campaigns while maintaining accuracy and privacy.”

“Brand suitability in podcasting should not be about blunt exclusions. It should be about understanding context,” said Tamara Zubatiy Nelson, Co-Founder and CEO of Barometer. “This campaign shows how bespoke suitability controls can help brands expand confidently across podcast inventory while maintaining the right level of control for their message.”

The case study highlights a growing opportunity for advertisers preparing for major sports and travel moments. By combining premium content, audience intelligence, suitability and measurement, BBC Studios, NumberEight, Barometer and Veritonic demonstrated a model for podcast advertising that can deliver scale, relevance and accountability around major cultural events like the World Cup.

No Red Cards, Only Green Lights for Podcasting Coverage

These massive, often global, sports events such as the FIFA World Cup, F1 races, The Olympics, and cricket championships now routinely rely on podcasting as a key element in their overall media strategy.

It wasn’t that long ago that podcasting was afterthought when networks planned to recoup the massive money spent to broadcast these events. Now, that landscape has changed.

Two trends accelerated that inclusion of podcasting into the primary media strategy for a global sports event. First, video podcasting enabled an entirely new, familiar, and comfortable media venue for sports-hungry audiences. Second, these video podcasts are now highly accessible through well-known and well-used channels such as Netflix, NBCUniversal, iHeart, BBC, and YouTube.

In addition, the bright lights of full media visibility have been inclusive, enabling independent soccer podcasts to luxuriate in that glow as soccer fans search for niche shows that meet their exact requirements.

For example, The Total Soccer Show is a podcast focused on the U.S. Men’s National Team, while the hosts – Taylor Rockwell and Daryl Grove — may also discuss the Champions League, the Premier League, and Major League Soccer. Their May 27th episode is emblematic of the show’s focus – Does Pochettino’s World Cup roster make sense? On that show, the hosts and two guests breaks down Mauricio Pochettino’s USMNT World Cup roster. On the show, they ask: “What choices surprised us? How concerned are we about the midfield? And should Poch have picked up the phone to call the guys who didn’t make the cut?”

Andreea Coscai is the owner/editor of Eurowaves, the go-to biweekly newsletter and website covering the European podcasting industry. Andreea notes that, “There are many smaller, independent podcasters throughout Europe who are gearing up to cover the World Cup. It isn’t just the well-known podcasts who can cover the Cup.”

Andreea adds: “European culture on football takes over podcasting in a unique way from other areas of the world. It’s a reminder that when looking at international podcasting, we cannot separate culture and language from content and a market’s development. I.e. don’t apply the same rules to European podcasting as you do to podcasting in the United States.”

While the outcome of the World Cup is clearly uncertain despite the best guestimates of sports gambling companies, there is no doubt that ratings via TV, podcasting, and streaming will set records. We know from the study presented above that advertisers see podcasting as an ideal venue from which to sell their products and services.

According to Kate Hardcastle from Forbes, more than 500 million ticket requests have already been submitted for World Cup 2026. FIFA’s expanded competition will bring together 48 nations, 104 matches and 16 host cities across the United States, Canada and Mexico, creating the largest World Cup in history. It’s estimated that the World Cup could generate more than $8.1 billion in visitor spending across North America alone. The football has not started. As Kate Hardcastle reported, “The commercial activity surrounding it is already in full flow.”