Welcome to West Digital Studios

I’m starting a newsletter, and honestly it’s a bit selfish.

I keep hearing that the creator economy is exploding, that podcasting is booming, but that’s a broad claim and nobody quite defines what it means. Everyone’s got a number to back it up, and every number seems to be measuring something slightly different. I got curious enough to start digging into the actual reports myself: who published this, when, and what were they really counting. Partly because I wanted to know what’s genuinely going on in an industry we’ve bet a big part of our future on, and partly because I couldn’t find anywhere that laid it out clearly.

So here’s the idea behind Beyond the Podcast: once a month, I’ll pull together what the UK data actually says about this industry, tell you exactly where each number comes from, and give you my honest read on what it means, for you if you’re a brand, a creator, or a studio like ours, and for us, because we’re figuring out what it means for West Digital and for the clients who trust us with their shows at the same time as you.

One rule I’m setting for myself from issue one: every number here gets a single named source. I won’t blend two different surveys together to make a bigger claim, and if I can’t verify something properly, I’ll say so rather than quietly leave it out. You’ll see that below.

So, the baseline.

27% of UK adults now listen to a podcast every week. That’s according to Ofcom, the UK’s communications regulator, whose annual survey is the most authoritative broad measure we have. A year ago that figure was 23%. A further 35% listen at least monthly. This is not a niche medium anymore. It’s mainstream audio.

Three things stand out about how this market is actually operating right now.

Video is no longer optional. 27% of UK podcast listeners actively prefer watching a video version. Another 26% leave the video playing in the background while they listen. That’s over half the audience choosing or accepting video when it’s there. If you’re producing a podcast and still treating video as an afterthought, the data says you’re already behind, not ahead.

The shows at the top aren’t podcasts anymore. They’re media businesses. The current UK top three, in order, are The Joe Rogan Experience, The Diary of a CEO, and The Rest Is Politics. What they have in common is that none of them make their money from podcast downloads alone. YouTube channels with millions of subscribers, live tours, brand partnerships, merchandise, premium tiers. The podcast is the front door. The business is everything behind it.

The advertising money is following the audience, and paying a premium to do it. UK spend on digital audio advertising (that’s ads across streaming audio and podcasts combined) hit £317 million in 2025, up 10% on the year before, in a market where overall ad spend barely moved. If you’ve heard people talk about podcast “CPM” it’s cost per thousand, so it’s simply what an advertiser pays for every thousand people who hear their ad. Podcast CPMs run high compared to most digital formats, because this audience is hard to reach anywhere else and stays for 20 to 60 minutes at a time. That’s a rare thing to be able to sell.

Here’s what this means for anyone building something in this space right now, us included. We made the call two years ago to grow West Digital from a post-production house to offer podcasts a broadcast studio and a podcast theatre. We didn’t do it because we had a crystal ball. We did it because the direction was already visible.

This newsletter will track these numbers every month and ad more details to the different sectors. Same discipline on sourcing every time. Full data and the deeper breakdown of everything above sits on the , link in my bio, and I’ll drop the source list for this issue in the comments below.

Next month: the live event economy. What the numbers say about podcasts going on tour, and what that means for studios like ours that are building toward live production.

If you’ve got a question about any of this, a number that doesn’t match what you’ve seen elsewhere, or something you want me to dig into for a future issue, put it in the comments. I’d rather build this newsletter answering people who push back than just publish into the void.

#BeyondThePodcast #Podcasting #CreatorEconomy #UKMedia #WestDigitalStudios

August marks the end of West Digital’s 23rd year.

I’ve been thinking about what success actually means.

In a growing economy the answer feels obvious. Revenue up, team growing, awards on the shelf. But in a contracting market and the TV, film and marketing communications world has been contracting for a few years now, survival becomes the measure. Costs keep rising, rates have fallen, there isn’t enough work to go around. The government and big business have quietly stopped talking about the creative industries as an engine of growth.

So what does success look like in this environment?

I think it looks like character. How you cope in the bad times. How you preserve relationships. How you treat the people around you when things are hard. How you find healthy ways to carry the weight.

Being a founder can be lonely. I’m genuinely grateful that Peter and I have always been able to share the good and the bad. We balance each other out. That matters more than I can say.

Social media gives us a very glossy view of business. I’m not sure it does us any favours. We’re all human. We’re all carrying something. The support that actually gets us through doesn’t come from government or from the brands we buy, it comes from the communities we’re in, the people we work alongside, the everyday connections that acknowledge what we’re actually going through.
I’ll admit I’m sometimes guilty of carrying too much on my own. Not sharing it. Just shouldering the responsibility. But none of us should have to do this alone.

If you’re in the industry right now and finding it tough, the lack of work, the uncertainty, the weight of it all, please know you’re not alone. We see it. We feel it too.

We’re in Goldhawk Road, Shepherds Bush. Our doors are genuinely open. If you want to come in, have a coffee, sit with people who understand what this industry is actually like right now, no appointment needed. Just come. We’re not promising answers but we can offer company, a friendly ear, and a place to breathe for a moment.

From Peter and myself to our team, our clients, and the colleagues across the industry who have supported us thank you. We’re really grateful your on this journey with us.

In a few weeks we begin our 24th year at West Digital. The path from our 20th year to our 23rd has been one of the most difficult of the company’s life. But here we are.

Still standing. Still building. Still grateful for the small things.
hashtag#WestDigital hashtag#Founders hashtag#BusinessReality hashtag#CreativeIndustries hashtag#Gratitude

There’s a lot of conversation in the podcast world right now about video — most of it focused on whether to bolt a camera onto an existing setup. We think that’s the wrong question.
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This summer we hosted our first ever live comedy evening at West Digital — Mark Steel, live in our events space, with guest Sophie Wilan. It was live streamed and published across our channels.

The events space now has a full stage and lighting rig, and an evening like this is exactly what it was built for. If you have something in mind — a panel, a live recording, a launch, or something that doesn’t fit neatly into any of those — we’d love to hear about it.