https://www.airtime.news/ Africa-first news and intelligence for the podcast industry. en-gb https://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-creator-withholding-taxhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-creator-withholding-taxMon, 24 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTThe Lagos State tax authority is classifying digital creator payments as intellectual property royalties, subject to a 5% withholding tax. The move affects earnings on platforms including Selar and Mainstack, and marks a new friction point for Nigeria's growing creator economy. https://www.airtime.news/articles/acast-backyard-ventures-consolidationhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/acast-backyard-ventures-consolidationMon, 17 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTSwedish podcast platform Acast paid $20 million to acquire Backyard Ventures, bringing 230 million monthly listeners including Piers Morgan and Ryan Holiday into its portfolio. The deal signals platform consolidation reshaping creator discoverability and sponsorship economics. https://www.airtime.news/articles/chief-ochuko-hangout-podcast-launchhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/chief-ochuko-hangout-podcast-launchMon, 17 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTEstablished Nigerian entertainer Chief Ochuko Derek Omiragwa launches "The Hangout" podcast with UK co-production, signalling how established broadcast personalities are moving into audio and building international production partnerships. https://www.airtime.news/articles/idris-elba-google-ai-creatorshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/idris-elba-google-ai-creatorsFri, 14 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTA 1 million dollar initiative jointly funded by Google and Idris Elba's Hope Foundation provides complimentary access to Gemini AI and digital production tools for 100,000 creators across five African countries, addressing production cost barriers in the creative economy. https://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-east-africa-cross-border-soundhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-east-africa-cross-border-soundFri, 14 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTSpotify's H1 2026 Global Impact List reveals how collaborative music across Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda is accelerating regional reach. Cross-border tracks are reshaping East Africa's listener base and positioning creators for global expansion. https://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-podcast-ad-skip-testhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-podcast-ad-skip-testThu, 13 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTSpotify is testing a skip button for podcast host-read advertisements, allowing Premium subscribers to bypass creator sponsorships. The feature threatens the primary revenue source for African podcast creators. https://www.airtime.news/articles/youtube-partner-doubled-requirementshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/youtube-partner-doubled-requirementsThu, 13 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTYouTube is raising its monetisation bar for new creators. Beginning February 2027, YouTube Partner Program applicants will need 8,000 qualified watch hours instead of the current 4,000. African creators face a steeper barrier to earning from video. https://www.airtime.news/articles/apple-podcasts-video-monetizationhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/apple-podcasts-video-monetizationWed, 12 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTRSS.com brings video monetisation to Apple Podcasts with zero subscriber threshold. Creators receive 70 per cent of revenue. African creators with small, engaged audiences can now monetise video on a major platform. https://www.airtime.news/articles/africa-everywhere-festival-internshipshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/africa-everywhere-festival-internshipsMon, 10 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTOge Elumelu's inaugural Africa and Everywhere festival proved a blueprint for converting African podcast audiences into employment. One day of events, 7,000 applications, 37 confirmed internship placements, and plans to repeat the model across African cities. https://www.airtime.news/articles/african-engagement-over-reach-monetizationhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/african-engagement-over-reach-monetizationMon, 10 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTAt a pan-African media conference, industry leaders including Jon Savage of APN argued that advertiser investment in African podcasts should turn on audience loyalty and connection, not listener volume. That shift would revalue niche creators and force platforms to measure success differently. https://www.airtime.news/articles/gaaga-world-equity-creatorshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/gaaga-world-equity-creatorsWed, 05 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTA Lagos-based startup is reframing how African podcasters and content creators capture value, replacing commission-based agencies with a revenue-share and intellectual property licensing model. https://www.airtime.news/articles/uganda-podcast-ecosystem-growthhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/uganda-podcast-ecosystem-growthWed, 05 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTEast Africa is expanding beyond Kenya. Uganda's emerging creator community of 120 active podcasters signals a secondary market reaching critical mass, challenging the Nigeria and Kenya dominance in African podcast growth narratives. https://www.airtime.news/articles/ecobank-scaling-up-podcasthttps://www.airtime.news/articles/ecobank-scaling-up-podcastTue, 04 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTThe Nigerian bank's new podcast features conversations with accomplished business personalities. Episodes are available on YouTube and major streaming platforms. https://www.airtime.news/articles/ezinne-akudo-beyond-podcast-expansionhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/ezinne-akudo-beyond-podcast-expansionTue, 04 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTSeason 2 of Beyond with Ezinne arrives with live events, merchandise and multi-platform distribution, signalling a shift from audio-only to integrated creator strategy. https://www.airtime.news/articles/podfest-naija-september-2026https://www.airtime.news/articles/podfest-naija-september-2026Mon, 03 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTNigeria's first podcast festival is back on 25 September. Five named brands are behind it, a Spotify masterclass is on the programme, and a structured "Next Big Podcaster" competition shapes how emerging creators enter the market. https://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-africa-greasy-tuneshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-africa-greasy-tunesMon, 03 Aug 2026 05:00:00 GMTInstead of raising rates, Spotify is launching food festivals and cultural experiences to build African creator relationships. It is a strategic bet that experiential marketing will do what the payout conversation has not. https://www.airtime.news/articles/african-podcast-listener-numbershttps://www.airtime.news/articles/african-podcast-listener-numbersSun, 26 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTNigeria has 80 million podcast listeners. South Africa has 42.7 million. Kenya has 23 million. These figures are quoted as settled fact across the sector. None of them carries a source, and the South African one contradicts itself. https://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-coverage-gaphttps://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-coverage-gapSun, 26 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTOur directory covers about five per cent of the Nigerian shows that have actually been counted. Worse, when we went looking for more, most of what we found we already had. The visible names are visible to everyone, and the other three hundred are invisible to all of us. https://www.airtime.news/articles/apn-network-south-africa-tilthttps://www.airtime.news/articles/apn-network-south-africa-tiltSat, 25 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTAfrica Podcast Network sells advertisers reach in 54 countries. Its offices are in Cape Town and Johannesburg, and every flagship show on its homepage is fronted by a South African. Yesterday we admitted our directory has this tilt. It turns out the continent's commercial infrastructure has it as well. https://www.airtime.news/articles/apn-numbereight-affinity-audienceshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/apn-numbereight-affinity-audiencesSat, 25 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTAfrica Podcast Network says it is the first on the continent to launch affinity audiences: ad targeting assembled from content signals rather than personal identifiers. On a continent where listener data is thin and privacy law is tightening, building the ad layer without tracking is not a compromise. It may be the only version that works. https://www.airtime.news/articles/african-podcast-directory-biashttps://www.airtime.news/articles/african-podcast-directory-biasFri, 24 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTAirtime's directory now lists more than 490 African podcasts. About 434 of them are South African. We are telling you this because the tilt is not a finding about the continent, it is a finding about our data, and every map of African podcasting has the same problem. https://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-dormant-showshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-dormant-showsFri, 24 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTNigeria's podcast census is usually quoted at 329 shows. The more honest number is 241, because that is how many were still publishing when the count was taken. The other 88 are inactive or on hiatus, and that quarter is the part of the story the headline figure hides. https://www.airtime.news/articles/african-podcast-diaspora-awardhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/african-podcast-diaspora-awardThu, 23 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTAfrican podcasting is usually mapped by city: Lagos, Nairobi, Accra, Johannesburg. Its diaspora award tells a different story. The two-time winner is a Nigerian-born host who records about Black and Asian culture, in a show whose episodes turn up in Korean. https://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-english-language-gaphttps://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-english-language-gapThu, 23 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTThe country's first podcast census found 90.6 per cent of shows publish in English. Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa, first languages for most of the country, share barely eight per cent between them. That gap is the market's ceiling and its clearest opening. https://www.airtime.news/articles/afripods-african-podcast-hostinghttps://www.airtime.news/articles/afripods-african-podcast-hostingWed, 22 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTYesterday we reported that Spotify hosts three in five Nigerian shows and pays none of them, because its payout programme names eight countries and no African one. There is a homegrown answer to that, it is nine years old, and its founding pitch was the bank account problem. https://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-religion-genrehttps://www.airtime.news/articles/nigeria-podcast-religion-genreWed, 22 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTThe country's first podcast census counted 94 religion and spirituality shows against 21 news shows. Faith outweighs education, business and news put together, and almost every directory of African podcasting, including ours, is built to miss it. https://www.airtime.news/articles/apva-2024-winners-industry-maphttps://www.airtime.news/articles/apva-2024-winners-industry-mapTue, 21 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTAt the last African Podcast and Voice Awards to publish a winners list, a South African leadership show took the top prize. The full list runs to 23 podcast categories, and read as a document it says more about the industry than the trophy does. https://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-partner-program-africa-gaphttps://www.airtime.news/articles/spotify-partner-program-africa-gapTue, 21 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTIn January Spotify cut the bar for its Partner Program to three episodes and a thousand listeners. The announcement names eight countries where that money is available. None of them is in Africa, and six in ten indexed Nigerian shows are hosted on Spotify's own free tool. https://www.airtime.news/articles/business-talk-16-millionhttps://www.airtime.news/articles/business-talk-16-millionMon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTBusiness Talk with Michael Avery has passed 16 million views, according to its publisher. The figure is self-reported. The machine that produced it, 14 seasons, 15 partner series and four blue-chip brands, is the part worth studying. https://www.airtime.news/articles/directory-audit-489-showshttps://www.airtime.news/articles/directory-audit-489-showsMon, 20 Jul 2026 05:00:00 GMTWe spent a week verifying every listing in our continental directory: every link fetched, every cover traced, every silent show dated. The dataset is ours, so read it with that in mind. What it says about discoverability should worry the whole industry.