What it means to be a podcaster is evolving fast, and New Zealand is no exception. A medium that was very much a cottage industry only a few years ago is now capturing audiences at a scale we haven't seen before, and it's happening across social, video and audio all at once. The 2025 Infinite Dial New Zealand report found that 55% of New Zealanders listened to or watched a podcast in the last month, up from 39% in 2022.
New Zealand has always been quick to adopt new technology, just look at music streaming. But the shift in podcast consumption is arguably one of the biggest we've seen since social media went mainstream.
A behaviour born out of a global pandemic?
The pandemic certainly accelerated podcast listenership, with news dominating consumption in the early days. What's been more interesting is what happened next. Audiences didn't simply return to their old habits, they kept discovering podcasts across comedy, entertainment, sport, business and culture, and podcasting is now just part of everyday media consumption.
New Zealand creators Steven Holloway and Seamus Marten started recording Between Two Beers back in 2019, armed with nothing more than a microphone and a laptop in a garage in Hamilton. Today they've built one of the country's most recognised podcast brands, working with advertisers like Xero, New World, Visa New Zealand and Maker's Mark, while expanding into video, live events, merchandise and social content. The show now averages more than 223,000 monthly listens and views, with 200,000 combined social followers. Holloway and Marten even travelled to North America for the FIFA World Cup to produce Between Two Goals, a daily digital interview series for TVNZ+.
And they're far from an isolated example. The Dom Harvey Podcast, hosted by broadcaster, author and marathon runner Dom Harvey, has racked up more than 9.2 million total downloads across audio and video, working with brands including BetterHelp, Xero and New World. Simran Kaur's Friends That Invest has built a huge community around financial education, while investigative shows like Delve and GUILT show just how far independent journalism has come through podcasting.
The opportunity isn't limited to New Zealand either, with Australian shows like Toni and Ryan, We Mean Well and Alpha Blokes now building serious audiences across the Tasman.
From an audience perspective, the biggest driver of listenership and viewership growth is content quality, paired with the freedom to consume it wherever people want, on YouTube, Spotify, Apple or anywhere else. Podcasts aren't just an audio format anymore. They're increasingly multi-format media businesses, with creators building audiences across audio, video, social, live events and more.
That's opening up new ways for brands to reach highly engaged audiences. The opportunity isn't simply to slot an ad into a podcast, it's to work with creators who understand their communities and can make a brand part of the conversation.
Acast's Podcast Pulse 2025 report shows that globally, 75% of weekly podcast listeners don't consider podcasters to be influencers, yet 84% say a podcaster has changed their mind about something they once believed in.
Buying routes have evolved too. In-show host-reads can now be traded directly or through programmatic channels, and richer delivery data and attribution are giving advertisers more confidence in the medium and making it easier to measure campaign impact.
So what does this mean for brands?
Podcast audiences are already talking about the World Cup before search interest peaks, using Podchaser and Acast data
72% of listeners say podcasts significantly shape the cultural conversation, and podcast audiences are often engaging with major cultural moments before they become mainstream search trends.
This matters for advertisers. Podcasts can capture attention and build influence early, as audiences follow the conversation, hear different perspectives and build anticipation ahead of an event.
That means brands don't need to wait for the big moment to arrive. They can use podcasts to get into the conversation early, partnering with creators and communities who are already talking about the things their audiences care about. The conversation is happening long before the event itself, and the opportunity to find the right audiences is there for the taking.
The real opportunity is to think beyond the traditional 30-second spot and look at how brands can work with creators across audio, video, social and live experiences.
The podcasting economy in New Zealand is looking really bright, and there's no reason to think audience and advertiser interest will slow down anytime soon. The talent is here, the audiences are here, now it's time for brands to catch up.