Steven Bartlett, the entrepreneur behind the hit podcast The Diary of a CEO, and Roxcodes (also known as Rox C), former engineer for YouTube megastar MrBeast, have just launched Flightcast, a new video-first podcast hosting and analytics platform. The launch, announced in early October 2025, marks the culmination of two years of development and aims to radically simplify the way creators distribute, analyze, and grow their podcasts across major platforms.
Flightcast enters the scene at a pivotal time for the podcast industry. According to recent research from Sounds Profitable, YouTube now commands approximately 40% of the monthly podcast listener market in 2025, cementing its status as the leading podcast destination. Meanwhile, consumer expectations around podcast formats are shifting rapidly, with only 21% of listeners anticipating audio-only content—down from 26% in 2024. The majority now expect podcasts to offer flexibility: 38% say they expect "usually audio, may be video," 25% say "may be either," and 13% expect "usually video, may be audio."
In this changing landscape, Flightcast seeks to empower creators to keep up with both audience demand and the technical challenges of multi-platform distribution. As Bartlett explained in a press release, "Flightcast brings together all of the tools we built to help us grow. The demand for high-quality video podcast content is skyrocketing, but the process for creators has been unnecessarily complex and time-consuming."
At its core, Flightcast offers two headline features: a unified upload flow that allows users to distribute both video and audio content to platforms like YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts with a single click, and a consolidated analytics dashboard that pulls together performance data from all these platforms into one accessible interface. This eliminates the need for creators to juggle multiple dashboards or engage in tedious manual work.
Rox C, Flightcast’s CEO, highlighted the pain points the new platform aims to address: "We’ve taken the tools that built The Diary of a CEO, and turned them into a software platform you can use. No more manual work, no more multiple dashboards, no more guessing." He elaborated, "Flightcast allows you to publish everywhere with one upload, and see all of your data in one download. YouTube data, Spotify data, Apple data. Then there’s AI on everything to help you analyse the data, to help you understand what’s working, help you understand what’s not, and make recommendations as to what you should do. It’s basically taking the entire Diary of a CEO playbook, one step at a time, and turning it into software any podcaster can use."
Flightcast’s AI capabilities are a major selling point. The platform deploys artificial intelligence for a range of tasks: transcribing episodes, generating titles, writing descriptions, and creating chapters. It also generates video clips from episodes, which are then uploaded to a test YouTube channel. The system tracks which clips perform best before publishing the top moments to the main channel—effectively automating a process that, according to Roxcodes, once required full-time data scientists at the biggest shows. "The biggest creators hire full-time data scientists to find the 1% gains," Roxcodes said. "Flightcast cuts through that with software that supports creators to quantify their data, truly understand their audience, and unlock their true potential."
Another standout feature is Flightcast’s ability to auto-sync an entire YouTube channel to Spotify indefinitely, ensuring that creators’ content remains up-to-date across platforms without any manual intervention. The platform’s AI is also trained on each creator’s existing content, so it can generate assets that match their unique voice and style—a boon for podcasters who want to maintain authenticity while scaling up production.
The timing of Flightcast’s launch is no accident. The average weekly podcast consumer now spends 6.3 hours listening to podcasts in 2025, up from 6.0 hours in 2024, with 44% of listeners reporting that they consume more podcasts than the previous year. The format’s popularity is also evolving: comedy leads the genre pack at 36%, followed by political talk (31%), true crime (30%), and news (30%).
Platform usage patterns further underscore the importance of video. On YouTube, 34% of podcast consumers report watching video content 76-100% of the time, compared to just 15% on Spotify. When it comes to smart TVs, YouTube is the undisputed champion, accounting for 76% of podcast viewing on these devices. This trend has prompted creators to rethink their distribution strategies, and Flightcast is positioning itself as the go-to solution for those looking to maximize reach and engagement in a video-first world.
Flightcast also builds on the foundation laid by Bartlett’s previous venture, FlightStory, which focuses on creating, producing, and scaling creator-led media formats and is the home of The Diary of a CEO. As Bartlett put it, "This is the byproduct of two years of work, and I really, really hope you guys enjoy it."
The platform’s all-in-one approach is designed to democratize access to advanced podcasting tools. By automating complex workflows and providing actionable insights, Flightcast aims to level the playing field for creators of all sizes—not just those with the resources to hire dedicated teams of analysts and editors.
Flightcast’s launch comes at a time when the lines between audio and video content are blurring, and the definition of a podcast is more fluid than ever. According to Sounds Profitable, the steady decline in audio-only expectations and the rise of video-first consumption reflect a broader shift in how audiences want to engage with their favorite shows. The platform’s unified analytics and AI-powered features are tailored to help creators navigate this new reality, enabling them to experiment with formats, optimize content, and connect with audiences wherever they are.
For podcasters, the promise of Flightcast is clear: publish everywhere with one upload, see all your data in one place, and let AI do the heavy lifting when it comes to optimization and growth. In an industry where the smallest margin can make a big difference, tools like Flightcast could prove to be game-changers.
As the podcasting world continues to evolve, Bartlett, Rox C, and their team are betting that creators will embrace a future where technology makes it easier than ever to reach, understand, and grow their audiences—no matter where or how they listen.
