New beehiiv Podcast AI Integration, Bumper Score's Measurement Impact, & More

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Sounds Profitable's new Audio Primes report finds that 22% of podcast consumers listen to 75% or more of their episodes as audio-only — and 90% of them use YouTube, making them heavier consumers of video platforms than the average podcast listener while still choosing audio for podcasts.
• Beehiiv is expanding its creator platform with MCP-powered AI podcast analytics and a new webinar product that supports up to 10,000 attendees, positioning the platform as a full-stack destination for content creators beyond newsletters.
• Bumper has launched Bumper Score, an independent audience verification tool designed to bring transparency and consistency to podcast advertising, with clients already directing over $500,000 toward ad buys enabled by the new metric.
• A Barrett Media column uses Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2025 data to argue that podcasting's most engaged listeners tolerate high ad volume but will leave over irrelevant ads, making hyper-targeted and programmatic advertising essential to avoiding broadcast radio's mistakes.
• Streamonomics author Hernan Lopez examines Netflix's $670 billion total addressable market estimate and compares it to the creator economy's projected TAM, which may exceed Netflix's figure when all creator platforms and direct creator revenue are included.

To find links to these, and every article covered in today's episode, click here. You can also subscribe to The Download's newsletter to receive the full issue straight to your email inbox every day.