2025 IAB Podcast Upfront: Politics and sports scale into big business … just ask Dwight Howard

New York, New York — The IAB Podcast Upfront returned to midtown this week, where networks and publishers pitched marketers on the future of the medium.

The day underscored three clear storylines: sports podcasts are scaling into big businesses; political shows are influencing culture; and video podcast formats and ad loads are on the rise, even as investment trails audience growth.

For brands, that spells opportunity. In fact, IAB predicts that podcast ad spend will surpass $3 billion for the first time in 2025 — a number that, while growing, still represents a tiny fraction of global ad spend, which new WARC estimates predict will hit 1.17 trillion this year.

“If you’re still on the sidelines, the message is simple,” said David Cohen, the CEO of IAB, kicking off Tuesday’s events. “Podcasts are no longer optional. They are central to how consumers spend their time, their attention and their trust.”

Ad loads rise, but spend still lags

The advertising economics at play are just as interesting as listener trends.

Both NPR and iHeartMedia touched on the rising numbers of podcast listeners in their presentations.

“We’re nearing an hour a day of podcast listeners consuming podcasts,” iHeartPodcasts President Will Pearson said, referring to its popular shows like The Joe Rogan Experience, Stuff You Should Know and The Breakfast Club.

NPR, meanwhile, which has been facing funding issues since Trump signed a bill in July rescinding all federal funding for public broadcasting, announced that it was adding new podcasts to its mix, like America in Pursuit, and bringing Tiny Desk Concerts to radio channels.

“We’re not going anywhere,” announced Bobby Carter, the host and series producer of
Tiny Desk Concerts.

Scott Davis, senior vice president of corporate sponsorship at NPR, shared that there are 46 million weekly listeners across NPR platforms, including for shows like All Things Considered, TED Radio Hour and Tiny Desk Concerts. He added that 74% of NPR listeners say their opinion of a business is more positive when they sponsor NPR.

But overall, the research shows that ad investment has yet to catch up. According to measurement firm Podscribe, ad loads are increasing and up 10% from last quarter alone— but podcasting still lags in spend per user compared to other media.

“Podcasting grew up with advertisers buying on a single show,” said Peter Birsinger, CEO and co-founder of Podscribe. “However, this is changing. Advertisers are having more options, more targeting ability than ever before.”

Podcasts now increasingly all have video formats, but measurement challenges now need to address audiences split between RSS audio feeds and YouTube, Birsinger said.

Still, “this is a natural evolution of the industry,” according to Bob Hunt, senior director of audio at ad agency Hearts & Science. “It shows how advertisers are having more options than ever before.”

Sports podcasts become big-league business

One of the biggest places opening new avenue for advertisers is the ever-growing digital sports arena. As sports content expands into streaming, it is also taking root in the podcast world.

Newly appointed basketball Hall of Famer Dwight Howard, who has his own podcast — Above the Rim — made an appearance to talk about the importance of podcasting, explaining it helps get closer to fans and lets him share “high-level conversations, with not just basketball players, but entertainment stars.” Now that he is not currently playing in the NBA, he says he has “all the time in the world to talk.”

Jomboy Media serves as the prime example of creator-led voices becoming media powerhouses, after catching the attention of Major League Baseball, which now has a minority stake in the company.

According to CEO Courtney Hirsch, Jomboy Media is the “first and only creator-led media company that is fully backed by a sports league.” The company has grown from lip-reading baseball clips to producing The Warehouse Games — what Hirsch described as “half reality show, half sports league,” where athletes and sports personalities play newly invented games like “Blitzaball” or “Floorball” in a custom-built warehouse studio.

“What started with just Jimmy [“Jomboy” O’Brien] and Jake [Storiale] [in]their respected bedrooms talking ball has now blossomed into a full-scale media company,” said Brett Joss, vice president and head of partnership sales at Jomboy Media. “We have 44 shows, hundreds of social channels. We’re doing billions of video views, hundreds of millions of social impressions a month.”

“Imagine your favorite podcast host … competing in a year-round backyard sports competition. It creates this connection and stickiness between our shows that other podcasts don’t have.”

“The industry is recognizing that creators are the new Hollywood,” Hirsch said.

Political podcasts push into culture

Politics is the other big current in podcasting, with the Daily Wire, a fast-growing, right-leaning media company, underscoring how podcasts are increasingly blurring the lines between political content and cultural influence.

“More than ever, it seems that politics is culture,” said Christine Hoffmann, senior vice president of ad revenue at the Daily Wire. “The 2024 presidential election made this point clear as political podcasts became a vital force of American culture.”

The Daily Wire pointed to its audience scale — over 1 million paying subscribers and 50 million monthly podcast downloads — as evidence of that cultural pull. “At the Daily Wire, we’re not just reporting on culture, we’re shaping it,” Hoffmann said.

President and Chief Content Officer Mike Richards highlighted the network’s push into broader, debate-driven programming. “We don’t want to do conspiracy theories and wild accusations. We have great creators who are not afraid to challenge the mainstream ideas,” he said. “We are investing in content that will spark conversations, encourage debate and, really, our audience in transforming the nation.”

As younger generations and more listeners flock to podcasts, advertisers will need to keep up with where consumers are directing their attention and trust.

Gen Z is a particular focus. “Young people overwhelmingly are getting information from TikTok and Instagram reels and the YouTube livestream far more than they’re reading The New York Times or tuning into television,” said Isabel Brown, host of the Daily Wire-distributed “Isabelle Brown Show.” “People are just excited to converse with ideas and perspectives that they might not have confronted before.”