This is <\/em>Hot Pod, <\/em>The Verge\u2019s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up <\/em>here<\/em><\/a> for more.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Hope everyone at The Podcast Show is enjoying the conference (and ignoring their jet lag). While I\u2019m still very much across the pond (like, way across) in LA, this issue of Hot Pod<\/em> leads with some news from BBC Radio. I\u2019m also digging into kids podcasts on YouTube and an interesting announcement by Bill Simmons about Spotify\u2019s voice cloning for ads.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But before I start \u2014 remember Twitter Spaces? Twitter\u2019s live audio platform will make history tomorrow at 6PM PT when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis hops in a room to announce<\/a> his bid for presidency. As The Verge<\/em> reported last year, most of the team<\/a> behind Twitter Spaces has either been fired or resigned. Hopefully there will be no technical difficulties! <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kids podcasts on YouTube can\u2019t compete with Bluey<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Popular audio podcasts for adults by Slate<\/em> and NPR haven\u2019t thrived<\/a> on YouTube \u2014 turns out that may be the case for kids podcasts as well. About six months ago, kids podcast publisher Tinkercast started an experiment on YouTube. The publisher behind popular kids podcast titles like Wow in The World <\/em>and How to Be An Earthling<\/em> started publishing episodes on YouTube and YouTube Kids, creating videos with light animation just for the platform.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n While Tinkercast did reach a new (and more diverse) audience on YouTube, that group was far less than its traditional podcast audience. Tinkercast\u2019s WowTube channel on YouTube has just over 6,000 subscribers, and many episodes have well under 1,000 views. Among the reasons may be that Tinkercast\u2019s programming has to compete with a whole universe of kids content on YouTube \u2014 from high quality, popular children\u2019s TV shows from Disney and Nickelodeon to amateur content like gameplay videos that may not be as enriching. So Tinkercast is in kind of a unique middle group, where it isn\u2019t creating the type of low-stakes content that goes viral but also doesn\u2019t have the resources of enormous animation studios.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cBeing in that kids space, there\u2019s the added dimension of when kids are logging onto YouTube, you know, we\u2019re competing with Roblox<\/em> playback videos and unboxing videos. If we don\u2019t get kids in the first nanosecond, we\u2019ve lost them,\u201d Johanna Weber, Tinkercast\u2019s senior director of brand marketing and communications, told Hot Pod<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Weber also said there\u2019s no correlation between podcast episodes that perform well on YouTube and those that performed well on audio podcast players. Tinkercast has found that search terms on YouTube (monkey, poop, and toilet are popular) have driven discovery of its podcast episodes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n One thing I\u2019ll note is that YouTube Kids gives parents the option to turn off the search function. While this safety feature may come in handy in case of another Elsagate<\/a> \u2014 it does mean publishers on YouTube Kids will be exposed to fewer audiences.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n I\u2019ll include more from my interview with Tinkercast in Thursday\u2019s Insider edition.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n BBC Radio is opening up more podcast IP to the rest of the world<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n The British are coming\u2026 to Audible and Apple and Spotify. Global audiences will soon be able to stream even more British radio programs on the podcast player of their choice. BBC Radio announced today that it\u2019s moving some of its programming to the British broadcaster\u2019s commercial content arm \u2014 BBC Studios \u2014 in an effort to tap into a global podcast audience. The news arrived on the second day of The Podcast Show, as podcast and radio professionals from around the world gather in London.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The move signals a pretty big strategic shift for the radio arm of the British broadcaster, which turned 100 years old last year and has traditionally stuck to public programming. BBC Radio made the decision after a May 2022 review to figure out how it could tap into the global market for podcasts. Similar to the television arm of BBC, which has partnered with streamers like Disney, Netflix, and Amazon to export British content, BBC Studios has made partnerships with the big audio platforms like Spotify. The radio broadcaster is shifting programming from its factual, entertainment, and drama divisions to BBC Studios \u2014\u00a0meaning it can be offered for global distribution.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Last year, the UK government froze funding for the BBC until 2024, requiring the broadcaster to make budget cuts. The government has also decided to abolish TV licensing fees in 2027 \u2014 which accounts for almost two-thirds<\/a> of funding for all of BBC, including its audio operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n As a result of the move, more British podcast IP will be made available to outside investors, and BBC Studios can explore more collaboration and funding opportunities. \u201cOur plan allows the BBC to benefit from the fast-growing global audio market, enabling our distinctive audio content to reach wider audiences, open up more creative opportunities and bring more investment back into the BBC. We\u2019ve seen how world-class BBC programming that\u2019s hugely popular with our UK audiences can go on to do great things with BBC Studios\u2019 backing, so I\u2019m excited to see what can be achieved by this plan, helping to put British podcasting on a global stage,\u201d wrote BBC\u2019s chief content officer, Charlotte Moore.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Not everyone is happy with BBC Radio\u2019s move. The trade body for the UK\u2019s audio industry said that now indie podcast producers will have to compete with BBC Radio in the wider market.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The group is asking that independent producers have the chance to compete to work in BBC audio productions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThe BBC\u2019s decision to move some speech audio production teams into BBC Studios represent a step change in its approach, with it moving production capacity to provide further competition to the independent sector. As most independent audio production businesses specialise in entertainment, factual and drama, they will now face additional competition from the BBC in the wider market,\u201d wrote Chloe Straw, managing director of AudioUK, in a statement. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Spotify is working on AI clones for host-read ads<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Bill Simmons has spilled the beans on Spotify\u2019s AI ad experiments. On a recent episode of The Bill Simmons Show<\/em>, the founder of The Ringer disclosed that Spotify was working on targeted ads that used voice cloning.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u201cThere is going to be a way to use my voice for the ads. You have to obviously give the approval for the voice, but it opens up, from an advertising standpoint, all these different great possibilities,\u201d said Simmons in a conversation with The Atlantic <\/em>writer Derek Thompson.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Cloning celebrity voices is nothing new. Several AI companies already offer free text-to-speech tools that feature the likes<\/a> of Gwyneth Paltrow, Snoop Dogg, Joe Rogan, and other celebrities. While these tools aren\u2019t perfect, many voice actors, audiobook narrators, and podcast hosts have expressed concern that AI could eliminate their professions altogether. The Screen Actors Guild (which covers some audio industry professionals) included the threat of unregulated use of generative AI as one of its primary concerns to address in upcoming contract negotiations. Last week, the guild called for a strike authorization vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n When Hot Pod <\/em>reached out to Spotify, it didn\u2019t directly comment on the accuracy of Simmons\u2019 remarks. \u201cWe\u2019re always working to enhance the Spotify experience and test new offerings that benefit creators, advertisers and users. The AI landscape is evolving quickly and Spotify, which has a long history of innovation, is exploring a wide array of applications, including our hugely popular AI DJ feature,\u201d wrote Spotify advertising head in B2B communications Erin Styles in an email.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n It isn\u2019t a complete shocker that Spotify is exploring AI-generated voices for host-read ads. Last year, the company acquired Sonantic<\/a>, a text-to-speech platform that has created celebrity voice clones for the gaming and entertainment industries \u2014 including Val Kilmer\u2019s voice in Top Gun: Maverick<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n