Ted Hosmann from Apple Podcasts talked HLS
Apple Podcasts product manager Ted Hosmann walks through how the platform uses HLS to deliver video podcasts at the IETF’s HLS Interest Day. He says top shows have seen their audience grow by more than 20% on average since adding video. Net new followers are up more than 130%, and plays are up more than 10%. Hosmann adds that video podcasts recently reached the Apple TV app and that Apple has integrated HLS with more than 20 hosting platforms. On ads, he explains that interstitials are the way to dynamically sell and insert video ads. Apple does not allow skip restrictions on them. Ad bumpers can sit inside the interstitial, so the player skips straight past them when no ad fills the break. Apple has also published documentation on how to produce HLS for Apple Podcasts, which Podnews highlights. It lists stereo AAC-LC at 192 kbps and 48 kHz as preferred, and 5.1 surround is also supported. The playback guide says auto-downloads stay audio-only by default, and followers can opt in to video downloads. Separately, The Mac Observer reports that Apple acqui-hired members of the team behind Huxe, an AI audio startup founded by former Google NotebookLM developers. An EU Digital Markets Act filing shows the deal closed in June. It gives Apple the right to make offers to specific employees and a non-exclusive license to the technology. Huxe turned email and calendar data into personal audio briefings and shut down in May.
Audible unveils findings from a NielsenIQ study it commissioned, surveying 18,000 spoken-word audio listeners across 11 countries, at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The survey covers audiobooks, podcasts, and scripted and non-scripted audio series. 34% say they listened to more audio in the past 12 months than the year before. Brazil leads at 46% and Mexico follows at 44%, with the UK at 38% and the US at 35%. 51% say audio has helped them replace screen entertainment, and 47% credit it with reducing their social media use. Genre is the top factor in choosing a title, and topic is second in every country. 65% seek out more books by a narrator they like. 50% are open to AI-narrated content, from 42% in Germany to 66% in Japan.
Digiday reports that the biggest creators are cutting their brand rosters and asking more of the partners they keep. Alix Earle says she would rather work with five or six brands than 100 each year. She is also weighing equity deals with the ones she keeps. Jordan Howlett became chief content officer at Blenders Eyewear, where he directed a commercial with Method Man. He also pushed the company to release a 3,000-pair mystery collection ahead of the holidays. Kevin Cooney turns down campaigns he doubts will perform and tells those brands to put them with a few micro creators. Issa Rae’s HOORAE Media funds free TikTok micro series through brand integrations with General Mills and DoorDash. The authors tie the shift to fandom. One partnership that looks bought can be enough to get a creator branded a sellout, so loyal audiences are the asset creators are protecting.
Powered By Podcasts, Audio Leads Product Placement Growth
Inside Audio Marketing reports on PQ Media’s new Global Product Placement Forecast 2026-2030. Global product placement spending grew 12.7% in 2025 to $37.16 billion. It is on pace to grow 12.8% in 2026 to $41.92 billion. Music was the fastest-growing placement category at 13.8%, fueled by placements in popular podcasts where the host references brands and products. Inside Audio Marketing puts the music and audio category at about $502 million worldwide, against $26.16 billion for television and $4.44 billion for film. PQ Media also flags a slowdown in new podcast titles as one factor limiting future placement opportunities.
RSS.com has added a free transcription tool
RSS.com adds a free transcription tool that runs in the browser and is open to everyone, Podnews reports. It uses OpenAI’s open-source Whisper model, which downloads to the user’s device, so audio is never uploaded. Users drop in an audio or video file and export a VTT, SRT or plain text transcript. RSS.com lists no account, watermark or length limit. Model sizes run from about 120 MB to 1.6 GB, and the largest needs a modern GPU.
…as for the rest of the news:
- AI podcasting platform Rebel Audio announces the close of its Series A round at a valuation of about $50 million, led by Matt Kalish’s HardScope.
- WME’s Ben Davis is one of the guests on Freakonomics Radio‘s episode on the economics of podcasting, which puts the industry’s global gross at about $9 billion a year.
- Podnews reports that Maple Media has bought the Castro podcast app, according to its App Store listing. Maple previously acquired Player FM, Podkicker, and Breaker.
- The BBC announces cuts that include a smaller podcast slate on BBC Sounds and reduced commissioning spend on 5 Live sports podcasts, as part of a budget cut of at least 10 percent.
- SoundStack and Paragon host Flipping The Script: What Programmatic Media Buyers Say About Public Radio, a free webinar on Wednesday, October 14 at 2 p.m. ET.
- PAVE Studios’ OpenMind partners with Becca Bloom on Bloom’s Room, a weekly series launching in January 2027 on YouTube and podcast platforms.
- Joe Rogan renews his multiyear partnership with Spotify. Spotify did not disclose terms, and The Wall Street Journal pegs the deal at $250 million.
