Oxford Road released its latest ORBIT rankings, identifying 15 Entertainment & Media podcasts that outperform a genre that has historically ranked among podcasting’s weakest categories for advertising results.
The rankings draw from Oxford Road’s ORBIT (Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool), which the agency built on more than $1.8 billion in campaign data across more than 500 advertisers. The system draws on a rolling 12 months of verified campaign outcomes, and has grown from the $1.6 billion dataset Oxford Road reported at ORBIT’s October 2025 launch. The system measures customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend, and sales results from live campaigns.
Entertainment & Media podcasts rank in the bottom third of all genres tracked by ORBIT, trailing categories including True Crime, News, and Society & Culture. Oxford Road’s analysis identified 15 programs within the genre that exceed that baseline, with 14 of the 15 classified under the TV & Film subgenre. Oxford Road advises against broad genre-level buys, noting that high-performing shows in the category are “often built around specific, loyal communities and don’t necessarily have a big infrastructure behind them.”
TV & Film Shows Dominate the Top 15
“The Popcast with Knox and Jamie,” distributed by Acast Stories, ranked first. “Back to the Barre,” also on Acast Stories, ranked second. “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” on QCode ranked third. “Super Carlin Brothers” on Big Little Media and “Blank Check with Griffin & David” on Backyard Ventures rounded out the top five.
Source: Oxford Road
Oxford Road noted that shows engaging audiences around weekly TV episodes and new-release films performed consistently. “Successful entertainment podcasts drive engagement by keeping track of their audience’s interests, and by keeping an eye on the pop culture calendar,” the agency said.
“Super Carlin Brothers” and “Blank Check with Griffin & David” both focus on hyper-specific pop culture topics. Oxford Road attributed their strong rankings to the depth of audience engagement they generate. “Niche-driven shows are fine, so long as you follow the way fans engage with the material,” the agency stated.
Acast and Female-Skewing Programming
Acast captured four of the 15 ranked spots, more than any other publisher on the list. Oxford Road advised advertisers negotiating Entertainment & Media buys on Acast to anchor to those four shows before adding additional scale.
The report also identified four shows within the top 15 that form what Oxford Road described as a female pop-culture cluster, focused on female-skewing reality TV and pop-culture commentary. Oxford Road identified the cluster as a scaling option for direct-to-consumer brands targeting a female audience.
Oxford Road plans to release new ORBIT rankings monthly, with future editions covering genre-specific performance, international markets, emerging shows, and vertical-specific results.
Dragomir is a Serbian freelance blog writer and translator. He is passionate about covering insightful stories and exploring topics such as influencer marketing, the creator economy, technology, business, and cyber fraud.
Oxford Road released its latest ORBIT rankings, identifying 15 Entertainment & Media podcasts that outperform a genre that has historically ranked among podcasting’s weakest categories for advertising results.
The rankings draw from Oxford Road’s ORBIT (Oxford Road Benchmark Intelligence Tool), which the agency built on more than $1.8 billion in campaign data across more than 500 advertisers. The system draws on a rolling 12 months of verified campaign outcomes, and has grown from the $1.6 billion dataset Oxford Road reported at ORBIT’s October 2025 launch. The system measures customer acquisition costs, return on ad spend, and sales results from live campaigns.
Entertainment & Media podcasts rank in the bottom third of all genres tracked by ORBIT, trailing categories including True Crime, News, and Society & Culture. Oxford Road’s analysis identified 15 programs within the genre that exceed that baseline, with 14 of the 15 classified under the TV & Film subgenre. Oxford Road advises against broad genre-level buys, noting that high-performing shows in the category are “often built around specific, loyal communities and don’t necessarily have a big infrastructure behind them.”
TV & Film Shows Dominate the Top 15
“The Popcast with Knox and Jamie,” distributed by Acast Stories, ranked first. “Back to the Barre,” also on Acast Stories, ranked second. “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart” on QCode ranked third. “Super Carlin Brothers” on Big Little Media and “Blank Check with Griffin & David” on Backyard Ventures rounded out the top five.
Source: Oxford Road
Oxford Road noted that shows engaging audiences around weekly TV episodes and new-release films performed consistently. “Successful entertainment podcasts drive engagement by keeping track of their audience’s interests, and by keeping an eye on the pop culture calendar,” the agency said.
“Super Carlin Brothers” and “Blank Check with Griffin & David” both focus on hyper-specific pop culture topics. Oxford Road attributed their strong rankings to the depth of audience engagement they generate. “Niche-driven shows are fine, so long as you follow the way fans engage with the material,” the agency stated.
Acast and Female-Skewing Programming
Acast captured four of the 15 ranked spots, more than any other publisher on the list. Oxford Road advised advertisers negotiating Entertainment & Media buys on Acast to anchor to those four shows before adding additional scale.
The report also identified four shows within the top 15 that form what Oxford Road described as a female pop-culture cluster, focused on female-skewing reality TV and pop-culture commentary. Oxford Road identified the cluster as a scaling option for direct-to-consumer brands targeting a female audience.
Oxford Road plans to release new ORBIT rankings monthly, with future editions covering genre-specific performance, international markets, emerging shows, and vertical-specific results.
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