Bringing video to the open podcast ecosystem
The Podcast Standards Project kicked off Podcast Movement Dallas with a packed presentation of how video podcasting with HLS (HTTP Live Streaming) works, what that would functionally look like for creators, and what the industry needs to do for such a distribution system to become widespread. The PSP envisions a future where popular podcast apps with HLS support will have a button allowing users to switch between audio and videos versions on the fly. On the creative side, a podcaster would be able to upload their video file to their podcast host, which then would simultaneously put the video file on the RSS feed ingested by podcast apps, as well as use APIs to upload the episode to platforms like YouTube and Spotify. The next hurdle for widespread HLS adoption will be podcast platforms ingesting the RSS feed tag HLS uses, which the PSP addresses with a call to ask Apple for Apple Podcasts integration.
Podcasting Audiences Value Choice
Yesterday during his Podcast Movement keynote speech, Tom Webster debuted some fresh data from the upcoming 2025 edition of The Podcast Landscape, a survey of U.S. respondents familiar with podcasting. In the 2024 edition of the study, one slide shows responses to “When you think of a podcast, do you expect it to be audio or video?” In 2024 26% of respondents said audio only, 21% said “may be either,” and the usually-video or video only responses totaled up 15%. In the 2025 edition, audio-only has dropped to 26%, “may be either” is 21%, and “usually video” and “video-only” are up to 16%. Webster’s read of the audio-only percentage decreasing and largely being absorbed into “may be either” as not a sign that audio is being devalued, but a sign that podcast audiences value choice. Even on YouTube, 47% of respondents say they consume 50% or less of their podcast consumption via watching video. People listen to podcasts on YouTube a lot, something Tom attributes to YouTube having an easy-to-use app, good discoverability, and a culture of per-upload thumbnails that’re better at grabbing immediate attention than generalized show art. The data Tom previewed, as well as the rest of the study, will be debuted in a live webinar on Thursday, September 4th at 2 PM EST.
Every year Signal Hill Insights conducts a survey of 12,000 adult podcast consumers in support of Triton Digital’s Podcast Metrics Demos+. Since the annual study kicked off in 2021, News has consistently remained the second most-consumed podcast category, though Q2 2025 hit a new high with 27.3% of monthly podcast consumers saying they listened to or watched a news podcast in the past month. News podcast consumers trend more affluent, educated, and likely to hold high-level positions at their jobs. They’re also 22% more likely to say they remember hearing a podcast ad for 10 top brands advertising on podcasts.
As for the rest of the news…
- Pinwheel has launched a new free podcast hosting service, allowing creators to spin up a new project with no overhead costs.
- Triton Digital has a new quarterly U.S. Podcast ranker, this time bringing new upgrades, including the ranker now being a top 200 and Demos+ top podcasts overindexing for valuable audience demographics / consumer purchase intent.
- The Los Angeles Times reports Nexstar has agreed to acquire Tegna in a deal valued at $6.2 billion.
- Realm is reviving the long-hiatus’d Mike and Tom Eat Snacks with a new video version and premium subscription offering on top of the existing RSS audio feed.
- The Boston Globe has a trailer teasing the return of their podcast Love Letters early next month.
- reVolver Podcasts has announced a partnership with AI-powered listener analytics platform Listener.com, with plans to onboard their entire roster in the coming weeks.
