From quip to category: What the Golden Globes signifies for podcasting's future

There was a time, not so very long ago, when mentioning you worked in podcasting required a somewhat defensive preamble about what podcasting actually is. There is a TikTok trend circulating that goes something like this: if you cannot explain your job to a five-year-old or your grandmother, it does not exist. Perhaps five or ten years ago, podcasting would have fallen squarely into that invalid category. Today, I feel confident that my own 81-year-old grandmother knows a great deal about podcasts.

This may read flippantly, but these cultural markers matter. They are small but significant nods to the fact that podcasting has matured into a multi-billion-pound industry – one that now commands the attention of legacy media conglomerates, and, as of this year, the Golden Globes.

Cultural legitimacy: From Hollywood to Westminster

The introduction of podcasting as a Golden Globes category in 2026 marks a watershed moment for the industry. It represents recognition from legacy Hollywood that audio can challenge and drive narrative just as compellingly as film and television. Admittedly, all nominees were US-based shows, reflecting the relative maturity of the American market compared to the UK. But surely a British legacy slot is not far behind.

In a recent episode of The Rest Is Entertainment, Richard Osman joked that his OBE was in 'services to podcasting' rather than literature and broadcasting for which it was awarded. The quip was delivered with characteristic off-hand levity – but is an OBE specifically for podcasting really that far-fetched?

The services rendered by the UK's audio creatives to the cultural economy are now so significant that such an honour feels less like a joke and more like a formality waiting to happen. Podcasting has ceased to be merely a distribution method for spoken word audio. It has evolved into a distinct entertainment category in its own right.

The industry has further cemented this validation. Thanks to the rigorous efforts of AudioUK – and an open letter that garnered signatures from over 400 podcasting and audio businesses – the sector has officially secured a seat on the Creative Industries Council (CIC). This is not ceremonial gesture; it means that podcasting will be formally recognised as a core creative industry. It acknowledges that podcasting contributes to the UK economically, creatively, and culturally at scale.

For an industry that germinated from the ground up, these validations represent the formalisation of a previously fragmented sector into a recognised industrial pillar.

Podcasts at the Golden Globes – What next?

If podcasting is now a category – equipped with cultural cachet via the Globes and industrial infrastructure via the CIC – the focus shifts to what comes next: permanence and talent valuation.

We should expect a land grab for the upper echelon of talent. Not merely to host, but to build. The industry now offers a pathway to the kind of legacy previously reserved for stars of stage and screen, and the market is waking up to the value of owning the voices that command audiences.

Simultaneously, the supply chain is professionalising. The independent producer remains, but scale demands studio-level budgets, narrative rigour, and global distribution. If podcasting wants to sit alongside film, television, and music as a peer, it must build the infrastructure to match.

Podcasting is embedding itself in the broader entertainment economy not as a disruptor, but as a foundational supplier. The medium has moved from the margins to the mainstream, from hobby to industrial pillar, and from quip to category. What next indeed…

Image credits: Gage Skidmore from Surprise, AZ, United States of America, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons / Canva Pro