Football Giving Sports Podcasts An Early Season Lift

Television isn’t the only medium winning with football. Since the college and NFL season started, podcasts with sports and football themes have been putting bigger numbers on the scoreboard.

The audience blitz is happening on all levels, from podcasts that focus on the National Football League to shows about local and college teams. Betting and fantasy are also hot topics.

For example, Fantasy Football Today on the Audacy Podcast Network, climbed to No. 25 in Triton Digital’s ranking, rising 47 positions. Its top episode was Draft Prep Cram Session! Your Guide to Winning Your League.

FantasyPros–Fantasy Football Podcast on the iHeart Audience Network advanced 32 spots to No. 34.

NFL podcasts like Nightcap (on iHeart)  rose 7 positions to #36. 3 and Out with John Middlekauff  (also on IHeart) moved up 10 slots to 123 and NFL Daily with Gregg Robinson (another iHeart show) returned at No 140..

Purple Daily – A Minnesota Vikings Podcast,  a new show on the Gamut Podcast network, made its debut in the rankings at No.130.

Other sports podcasts moving up in August as the NFL season approached included The Dan Patrick Show, No. 26, and The Herd with Colin Cowherd, No. 39.

So who’s tuning in or downloading sports podcasts? 

According to Triton Digital, 81% of sports podcast listeners are men, with 44% between the ages of 35 and 54. They have money, with about 3 in 10 living in households with annual income of $100,000 or more and 1 in 8 earning $150,000+. About a quarter of them have $250,000 in investable assets.

Compared to the average podcast audience, sports fans are more likely to listen weekly and spend more time listening. 

YouTube is the podcast platform they prefer (36%). Usage of Apple Podcasts is slightly above average.

Sports podcast listeners tend to be active, with 45% saying they exercise at a gym. On the other hand 70% weekly say the eat at quick-service restaurants.

When asked why they listen, 62% said it was for entertainment, with 50% interested in stories and 47% hoping to learn something new.

Politically, about 46% of sports podcast listeners lean Democratic, 40% more Republican with the rest independent.

Triton Digital’s demos are based on a survey of 24,000 monthly U.S. Podcast listeners done between Q3 2023 and Q2 2025.

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Football’s return also gave the media companies that have deals to televise games a boost in August, according to Nielsen’s monthly report on the top video distributors.

The Walt Disney Co.’s share of television viewing rose to 9.7%, up 0.3 percentage points from July. College football games and the NFL preseason gave Disney’s ESPN a 25% increase in viewing and helped ABC affiliates grow 4%. 

Fox affiliates saw a 14% gain. Fox’s share of TV usage rose to 6.7% from 6.5%.

.NBCUniversal and Paramount, which also air football, were little changed in August.

YouTube lost a few share points but remained the top ranked video distributor while Netflix held steady with an 8.7% share.