By Roz Morris, Managing Director, TV News London
Taylor Swift recently announced her new album on a podcast. It’s run by her fiancé Travis Kelce and his brother Jason. That was so sweet wasn’t it – keeping it in the family you might say.
But podcasts aren’t just about mega news and mega bucks for Taylor Swift. Be honest – how aware are you of podcasts? Are you listening to them regularly as, according to the latest figures, more than half a billion people worldwide are doing?
Podcaststatistics.com says that 584.1 million people across the globe were listening to the more than 4.5 million podcasts available in May 2025 and the global podcast market is currently estimated to be worth nearly $40 billion and rising.
Most people (86%) are listening or viewing podcasts on their mobile phones for about 7 hours a week. The growth of podcasts has been extraordinary given they only started as a format just over twenty years ago and perhaps worrying for traditional broadcasters, nearly two thirds (64%) of people in the USA consider podcast hosts more trustworthy than other influencers.
In the UK this trust is lower but still nearly a half (48%) of people in the United Kingdom are trusting podcast hosts to be more trustworthy than traditional media hosts. Source: Media Bodies.
In addition, more than half (53%) of marketers surveyed stated that podcasts are the most effective format for marketing. Source: Hubspot.
So there are clearly a lot of benefits to going on a podcast, both for hosts and for interviewees. And that’s why you probably know people who’ve podcasted. How many of your friends and acquaintances have been on a podcast or are even running their own podcast? Have you given an interview on a podcast or been invited to do so?
Podcasts are now everywhere, all the time, and it’s standard for publicity campaigns to include interviews with podcasters.
However, whether you’re asked to appear on a celebrity podcast or a podcast with a small, niche audience that suits your business or profession, you need to understand that however easy-going the host makes themselves out to be, when they are interviewing you, they expect some value from you.
You’re only being interviewed because the host thinks you’re going to say some interesting things that can get them publicity as well as you. Plus, they want to grow their audience so they can sell ads and make money. If you’re boring, you won’t help them do this.
Podcast interviews may seem to be ‘just a chat’ but in fact they demand planning and careful thought by interviewees. You don’t want to end up being too interesting for the wrong reasons and that’s why at TV News London we include sessions on podcast training in our media training courses.
We can help you plan for podcast interviews, which are much longer interviews than for traditional news broadcasting. If you are not clear on why you on a podcast and you haven’t prepared enough positive messages, you can find yourself running out of ‘safe’ things to say.
Then you can find yourself, making headlines, but for the wrong reasons.
Would you like to tackle your next podcast interview with confidence? TV News London can provide you with training to avoid the perils of podcasts, get your messages across, and make the most of your podcast interviews. Contact me on info@tvnewslondon.co.uk To get yourself started you can find my expert advice on podcasts in Chapter 8 of my book – The Visual Revolution Guidebook
