Correction: an earlier version of The Download today incorrectly stated that HLS adoption means video podcast episodes will be distributed to Apple Podcasts via the RSS feed. In practice, podcast hosting services will be able to distribute video podcasts to Apple Podcasts using a special API. The article also indicated that Spotify and YouTube were working on similar APIs, Sounds Profitable has not been made aware of such work.
Video in Apple Podcasts – all the details by James CridlandThe beta version of iOS 26.4 is available for developers, and it includes support of HLS for video podcast distribution. You can (and should) read Cridland’s breakdown for more specifics. In the original story, this segment contained an inaccurate claim that Apple’s HLS ingestion would be done over RSS. It will be done through an API. In addition, there is no indication YouTube or Spotify are working on similar APIs.Acast has announced they’re aiming to fully support HLS distribution to Apple Podcasts. PAVE Studios founder Max Cutler discusses how this opens the door for dynamically-inserted advertisements in video podcasting. Cutler also stresses the power of dynamic ad insertion, as podcasting has already experienced this once when DAI became widely adopted in the audio world. Adding DAI to video as industry standard has the potential to bridge the spending gap between podcasting’s massive audience and the amount advertisers are actually spending on us.Correction: an earlier version of The Download today incorrectly stated that HLS adoption means video podcast episodes will be distributed to Apple Podcasts via the RSS feed. In practice, podcast hosting services will be able to distribute video podcasts to Apple Podcasts using a special API. The article also indicated that Spotify and YouTube were working on similar APIs, Sounds Profitable has not been made aware of such work.
Video in Apple Podcasts – all the details by James Cridland
The beta version of iOS 26.4 is available for developers, and it includes support of HLS for video podcast distribution. You can (and should) read Cridland’s breakdown for more specifics. In the original story, this segment contained an inaccurate claim that Apple’s HLS ingestion would be done over RSS. It will be done through an API. In addition, there is no indication YouTube or Spotify are working on similar APIs. Acast has announced they’re aiming to fully support HLS distribution to Apple Podcasts. PAVE Studios founder Max Cutler discusses how this opens the door for dynamically-inserted advertisements in video podcasting. Cutler also stresses the power of dynamic ad insertion, as podcasting has already experienced this once when DAI became widely adopted in the audio world. Adding DAI to video as industry standard has the potential to bridge the spending gap between podcasting’s massive audience and the amount advertisers are actually spending on us.
YouTube Pirating of Netflix’s Sports Podcasts Has Already Begun by David Rumsey
Front Office Sports covers a relatively new problem to the world of podcasting: content piracy. While people freebooting podcast episodes has been somewhat common since the beginning of podcasting, rarely has paywalled content been reuploaded in such a way it garners significant attention. After all, reuploading of clips or distributing episodes further has been expected behavior of open podcasting fandom for years. But in the case of now Netflix-exclusive sports podcasts like 3 & Out with John Middlekauff are being pirated and re-uploaded to YouTube in full. And they remain a difficult thing to combat, as any movie studio struggling to ban accounts uploading entire movies in 3 minute chunks as YouTube Shorts will tell you. Even the channel uploading John Middlekauff episodes is unfazed, posting a video explaining “Netflix corporate overlords” have pulled the full episodes and they’re moving to a secondary account that’ll continue re-uploading Middlekauff content. A side effect of podcasting becoming mainstream content is, unfortunately, podcasts are now in a position to feed into content piracy food-chains that’ve refined themselves over the past two decades.
Putting podcasts to work by Laura Williams-Tracy
It’s commonplace for podcast advertising to sell itself on how podcasts are great at targeting niche audiences. This piece from the Charlotte Business Journal serves as anecdotal backup that it’s still happening. Williams-Tracy writes about how Charlotte, NC brands are embracing the B2B capabilities of podcasting by starting their own shows. A local plastic surgery outfit has shifted from hosting free seminars to court potential patients to hosting a successful local podcast. National Gypsum, a construction supply company based in Charlotte, now runs a podcast targeting listeners in the building industry, filling empty time while they drive to job sites.
Revisiting ‘Future of News’ one year later: Stagwell investigates news advertising by Emma Thumann
A look into the second year of the News Advertising Study, launched by Stagwell CEO Mark Penn back in 2024. The study aims to highlight advertiser’s, as Penn says, “unintentional boycott” of running on news publications. Brand safety/suitability tools and practices applied too strictly can have the same impact as using outdated keyword blocklists. And, as the Future of News study finds (surveying 49,990 U.S. adults from March to April of 2024), ads running on “dangerous” topics perform just as well as safe topics. Reputational brand metrics consistently perform within single-digit percentage points on average on news stories containing topics like inflation, crime, or presidential candidates as “safe” topics like business, entertainment, and sports.
Partner Highlight – Catherine Browne
Occasionally we at Sounds Profitable reach out to partners to chat about recent developments or interesting stories relevant to their area of expertise. This time I’m back to chat with Catherine Browne, VP of Revenue & Partnerships, The Roost. Specifically, Catherine shares how the Theo Von Pepsi ad campaign around the Super Bowl came to be. Browne breaks down how The Roost made interviewing a nonverbal polar bear work, and how brands like Pepsi are giving podcasters enough creative control to appeal to the audiences they know intimately. Catch the full interview here on Sounds Profitable!
As for the rest of the news…
- Justin Jackson of the Podcast Standards Project has a new post explaining the current goals of the PSP, as well as how they plan to pursue those goals and affect change in the wider industry.
- Semafor reports they have indications PodcastOne is searching for a buyer to take the company private.
- Not often podcasts get into the New York Post! NPR host David Greene has filed a lawsuit alleging Google cloned his voice for one of NotebookLLM’s preset podcast host voices. Google denies this, saying that voice is licensed from an actor.
- Nikols Latuff has been promoted to Chief Growth Officer of Zeno Media (congratulations!)
- Lamorne Morris, co-creator of the QCode audio drama Unwanted, is set to co-star against Kenan Thompson in a movie adaptation directed by Richie Keen.
- The Earbuds Podcast Collective marks its ninth anniversary (another congrats!) by inviting subscribers and readers to fill out a survey on what newsletter readers value most. Entrants will be entered into a giveaway featuring prizes from creator-focused companies like RSS.com, Headliner, and Transistor.
- Spotify says generative AI has become such a useful development tool that their best developers have not written “a single line of code since December.”
