Goalhanger Podcasts Ltd, the company behind The Rest Is History and The Rest Is Politics, filed its full accounts for 2025 at Companies House on 25 September. They show revenue of £37.8 million, an operating profit of £9.8 million and a membership base that grew from 110,000 to 243,000 paying members in twelve months.
More of the money was earned in the United States than in the United Kingdom. Two thirds came from advertising and a quarter from membership.
This is the first audited, twelve-month set of accounts for Britain’s largest independent podcast company at its current size, and the most detailed public breakdown yet of where its money comes from.
Goalhanger’s 2025 figures
The accounts filed at Companies House cover the calendar year 2025. Turnover was £37,837,719. The comparison period is only seven months, June to December 2024, because the company moved its year end, so the £15,464,274 shown for that period is, in the directors’ own words, “not directly comparable”.
Operating profit was £9,824,734, profit before tax £9,849,107 and profit after tax £7,337,547. Cash at the year end stood at £4,955,770. Dividends of £5,034,500 were paid, against £36,000 in the previous period. The average headcount was 54, up from 34.
| Revenue by source, 2025 | £m | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Advertising | 25.3 | 67% |
| Membership | 9.4 | 25% |
| Live events | 1.5 | |
| Commissions | 0.8 | |
| Other income | 0.9 |
| Revenue by market | £m | Share |
|---|---|---|
| United States | 17.1 | 45% |
| United Kingdom | 14.8 | 39% |
| Rest of Europe | 4.2 | 11% |
| Rest of the world | 1.7 |
Thirteen shows, three launches and 40,000 tickets
The strategic report records 667 million plays across audio and video on 13 shows, and three launches in the year: The Rest Is Science with Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens in November, The Rest Is Football: Daly Brightness with Rachel Daly and Millie Bright in April, and The Rest Is Classified with David McCloskey and Gordon Corera.
Goalhanger also bought La Liga highlights and Premier League footage for The Rest Is Football, which it calls an industry first. More than 40,000 people attended its live events, including The Rest Is History at the Royal Albert Hall and at five venues in Australia.
Spotify, Netflix and the dollar
The strategic report, signed by co-founder Jack Davenport on 30 June 2026, says the company “exceeded its own expectations in audience reach, engagement and financial performance”. It says Goalhanger introduced video to every one of its shows and that “a significant portion of our audience watch our shows as well as listen”.
The outlook is unusually specific. “The 2026 budget is underpinned by our deal with Spotify and the exciting venture of bringing The Rest Is Football to Netflix every day during the FIFA World Cup from New York City,” it says, and “over half of 2026 revenues are contracted with large international and established businesses”. Under foreign exchange risk it notes that the company’s “major revenue contract” and much of its membership income are collected in US dollars.
The accounts do not say who pays the £17.1 million earned in the US. The mention of the Spotify deal and of a single major contract collected in dollars suggests Spotify is the largest customer, which is also how Podnews read it when it reported the filing.
So a company that holds four of the top ten places in the UK’s 25 biggest podcasts earns less than two fifths of its revenue at home. We think Goalhanger’s fortunes are now tied to Spotify’s spending on video podcasts as much as to British advertisers.
£9.4 million straight from listeners
Goalhanger charges £6 a month or £60 a year and offers membership on eight of its shows. It passed 250,000 members on 12 January this year.
Money collected directly from listeners does not depend on a platform’s ad market or a platform’s terms. We think membership is what gives Goalhanger its independence, and it is why the company keeps launching shows with the scheme built in from day one.
The Chernin stake, the dividend and a dispute
In January Goalhanger issued a new class of preference shares to “a third party investor” for £1,999,188 in cash, which diluted the founders without changing control. The accounts do not name the investor. Goalhanger announced The Chernin Group as its first outside investor on 28 January and said terms were undisclosed. The rights attached to the preference shares are not spelt out, so the cash figure need not be the whole value of the deal.
Greg Bettinelli, a partner at the Chernin Group, and Gary Lineker joined the board after the year end. On 14 May 2026 the company also created three subsidiaries, Goalhanger Studios, Goalhanger Commercial and Goalhanger Ventures, and says most of its trading will move into the first two.
City AM reported on 25 September that Lineker’s share of the £5.03 million dividend came to more than £1 million. Directors’ remuneration in the accounts is £24,000, plus £270,000 of pension contributions, and total key management pay was £304,110. The founders are paid through their shares.
Two risks in the notes did not make the headlines. The company is in “a commercial dispute with a former advisor regarding the terms of a historical engagement”, has received formal notice of a claim, considers it “without merit” and has notified a possible counterclaim. No provision has been made.
The second is currency. With almost half of revenue in dollars and most costs in sterling, the New York production of The Rest Is Football during the World Cup is described as a partial hedge.
Britain’s fastest-growing private company
The Sunday Times named Goalhanger Britain’s fastest-growing private company on 5 June, on sales of £37.9 million and three-year average growth of 321%. The audited figure is £37.8 million. The small difference is most likely rounding or a different definition of sales; we could not reconcile it from the published material. Either way, the accounts confirm a scale no other British independent podcast producer has published, and a profit margin of 26% on turnover.
Goalhanger is also setting itself up beyond podcasts: a Studios subsidiary, a Ventures subsidiary and, in August, a Head of IP Development hired from WME to turn the shows into television and film.
The next set of accounts is due by 30 September 2027 and will cover the Netflix year and the first full year of the Spotify contract. By then most of the trading will sit in the new subsidiaries, so the parent company’s accounts will say less on their own.
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