Keeping Cannes Affordable, The Case for Niche, & More

Today in the business of podcasting:

• Podcast Movement has received nearly 800 submissions for the upcoming New York City edition of the conference and business summit.
• Next Audio co-founder Lemya Soltani detailed on LinkedIn how her MENA audio network hosted a Cannes Lions networking event without VC funding, cutting costs through shared boat rentals, local catering, and budget flights. Sounds Profitable's Bryan Barletta shared a similar low-cost Cannes playbook, showing brands don't need big budgets to make an impact at the festival.
• A Sounds Profitable panel from Cannes Lions, "Riches vs Niches," is now live on YouTube, featuring executives from SoundStack, Red Seat Ventures, ART19, and ADOPTER Media. The group makes the case that niche podcasts can outperform broad-reach shows on engagement, ad rates, and subscription revenue.
• Deep Blue Sports + Entertainment and Mondo Metrics launched the Women's Sports Index, a real-time platform benchmarking media value across women's sports using social data. The tool aims to fill gaps left by traditional ratings metrics as new women's sports leagues build fan bases largely through social media.
• Nielsen's May 2026 survey found PM drive listening now leads AM drive across the top 10 U.S. radio markets, with afternoon share continuing to grow year over year. The trend challenges long-standing assumptions about morning drive's dominance in radio ad planning.

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.