Hernan Lopez, founder of Owl & Co, a management consulting firm servicing media, tech, and the attention economy, is best known as the founder of Wondery (acquired by Amazon in 2021).
Owl & Co
A new report by Owl & Co, a specialized consulting firm focused on media, tech, and the attention economy, reveals that the global podcasting revenue has grown by 23 percent in 2025.
Owl & Co is a business consulting firm that works with streamers, studios, IP owners, creator businesses, and investors to unlock enterprise value across content, platforms, audiences, and high-stakes decisions. The firm is focused on media, tech, and the attention economy.
The company says: “Our engagements are backed by real-world operator experience, proprietary data frameworks, and a global network of experts across streaming, content, technology, and finance.”
Owl & Co
Companies that were part of the study included Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Comcast, Disney, Fox, Meta, Netflix, Paramount Skydance, and Spotify.
The study asked responding companies: How big is the global podcast economy in 2025, and how fast is it growing? Which monetization shift separated the fastest-growing podcast publishers from the rest? What does the podcast industry’s 92x decade say about where vertical is today?
The Global Podcast Economy generated $9.2B in revenue in 2025, up 23% from the year before, according to Owl & Co’s Global Podcast Economy Report released today and covered by Bloomberg.
Conclusions from the report included those on video podcasts.
“Video is changing the picture. We built the report from over 300,000 data points across 1,600+ publishers, and spoke with more than 100 podcast publishers and experts around the world.”
History 101 on podcasting
According to Inside Radio, in 2016, the global podcast industry generated an estimated $100 million annually. During this early stage, the market was heavily localized to the United States and focused almost entirely on advertising, as scaled programmatic platforms and subscription models had not yet been introduced.
“That’s an incredible leap,” notes Willow Grove Communications CEO James Driscoll. “Podcasting’s growth rate has eclipsed that of TV or movies.”
Yet podcasting is still a junior member of the media giants’ universe. Take, for example, Movies. According to Wikipedia, the global theatrical box office for 2025 reached approximately $33.55 billion. Despite the gap in revenue between podcasting and movies, this represented a recovery period for the film industry, though it still fell short of the $42.2 billion global record set in 2019.
Despite podcasting’s junior status on global revenue, podcasting’s revenue is upward at supersonic speed, while Movies are trying to recapture its former glory from 2019.
On the Streaming TV side, Global streaming subscription revenue topped $150 billion (€138 billion) for the first time in 2025, according to new figures from Ampere Analysis, as platforms increasingly relied on price rises and ad-supported tiers to drive growth. Yet, according to Yahoo Finance, Peacock lost $432 million in the first quarter of 2026, widening from a $215 million loss in the same period a year earlier. Clearly, all is not well in U.S.-based Streaming TV.
Vox CEO Jim Bankhead said in a press statement: “Each one of these Vox Media divisions is marked by its strong relevance with audiences, its commitment to quality, and its enormous growth potential. We are incredibly proud to have built and scaled several of the leading media properties of this generation.
Getty Images for Vox Media
By contrast, James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems media and tech holding company, announced that it is buying a big swath of Vox Media‘s holdings, including New York Magazine, the Vox Media Podcast Network, and Vox.com.
“Murdoch sees the profits made by the Vox Podcast Network,” says Mr. Driscoll. “It’s an ascending business with growth potential and a proven track record for profitability.”
While radio sees decline in audience and revenue numbers, Movies battle the growth of Streaming TV, and even some Streaming TV platforms still search for profitability. By contrast, podcasting’ future looks bright.
According to Precedence Research, the global podcasting market size is predicted to increase from USD 12.89 billion in 2026 to approximately USD 115.57 billion by 2035, expanding at a CAGR of 27.60% from 2026 to 2035. The market growth is attributed to rising smartphone penetration, expanding digital audio consumption, and increasing investments in creator monetization ecosystems.