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• Exclusive: Amazon Music begins rolling out video podcasts from today. Video podcasts will initially be available for customers in the US on iOS and Android, across all subscription tiers. A spokesperson told us: "In today’s rapidly evolving podcast landscape, video has emerged as an increasingly essential format for creators and their audiences. With more consumers engaging with video podcasts of their favorite shows, Amazon Music is introducing an integrated video podcast experience for customers, making it simpler for customers to watch a selection of their favorite podcasts without leaving the app. This early experience will help us gather valuable customer feedback to shape and enhance the experience."
  • Amazon Music is initially launching video podcasts with Amazon's ART19, and has plans to expand to additional partners later this summer. Initial shows with video include Higher Ground's IMO with Michelle Obama and Craig Robinson, and Dear Media's Khloé in Wonder Land, Not Skinny But Not Fat and Let's Be Honest with Kristin Cavallari. ART19 and Amazon Music will work directly with creators and publishers to provide instructions on how to make their videos available on Amazon Music.
  • Podnews is told that the app will use HLS video, including support for HLS multivariate playlists via an alternate enclosure in RSS. Videos remain hosted by the creator's podcast hosting company. A company spokesperson told us that the approach "maintains an open RSS ecosystem, meaning podcast creators retain full control over their hosting, ad inventory monetization, and audience targeting." There is no private API to submit video, and Amazon Music is not charging podcast creators or networks for access to video distribution. A number of podcast hosting companies offering video have already said that they aim to support video delivery using the alternate enclosure.
• Acast claims its the first to monetise Apple Podcasts' HLS video, signing campaigns with State Farm and T-Mobile. The company says that 117 shows have already enabled Acast’s Apple HLS integration, with over 1,000 video episodes published to date (on Acast, access to video is currently invite-only). HLS video with Apple Podcasts, like with Amazon Music, remains hosted by podcast hosts like Acast.
• At The Podcast Show in London next week Flightpath will unveil Revenue Optimizer, a tool that is built to ensure that publishers maximise the available revenue from advertising campaigns in their shows. (Brand Stage, Wed, 2pm)
  • Muck Rack, a communications platform, will also be speaking at The Podcast Show. The company has joined Sounds Profitable's Partner Network, and will be alongside Sounds Profitable's Head of Communications, Molly DeMellier, on "The New Word of Mouth: Podcasts, Earned Media, and AI Search."

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• Oprah Winfrey's The Oprah Podcast today features guests that are out of this world - or, at least, they were. After their extraordinary, history-making trip around the moon, Oprah has an in-depth conversation with the crew of Artemis II. The crew shares how they were transformed after spending more than nine days traveling farther into space than any human being has ever been. The show was acquired by Amazon's Wondery last month.
• Spotify drives 1.5x more podcast consumption than YouTube, according to new data from Podstock. However, part of that is due to discovery tools and reach for new audiences - new listeners lower average time spent per stream. The data, based on thousands of different podcast episodes, highlights the increasingly multiplatform world of podcasting.
• In the UK, podcasting reaches more 18-34 year-olds than broadcast TV, says research from Sounds Profitable, written up by Ben Robins of Sound Insights. The data on the UK's podcast consumers arrives a week before The Podcast Show in London: Ben Robins and Tom Webster will cover more of the data on May 20 at 10am.

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• Exclusive: Daylight Media has acquired the online publication Podcast Review. We first reported on the website in Feb 2018; the well-regarded website contains human-curated podcast recommendations, reviews and analysis (like this, for The Idiot). The weekly newsletter goes to 12,000 people. Alice Orr becomes the Managing Editor.
• Exclusive: Million Podcasts has published The State of Video Podcasting 2026 - an analysis of 34,000 English-language video podcasts. This beautifully-designed report suggests that there are 7.7mn video podcast episodes available, but it's very unequal: the top 1% of video podcasts are getting 42% of all consumption. The inequality also extends to who's behind the microphone: there are twice as many video podcasts hosted by men as women. You can also score your podcast against the top ten.
• Exclusive: Niche podcasts may lose on scale - but they outperform in many other ways. Strategist Losh Moodaley writes for Podnews to highlight the blind spot of the podcast industry - inventory is valued in bulk, while context is largely ignored.

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• A community to connect BIPOC creators through education, networking and partnerships, BIPOC Podcast Creators has announced that it is closing. The co-founders announced that the closure is partially driven by capacity and time constraints, but also reflects the structural challenges of sustaining community-driven work in the current content creator landscape. “The industry benefits enormously from communities like ours, but the infrastructure to sustain them long-term requires arduous work and significant financial investment. And frankly, it’s not enough to ask our creators to pay to make up this difference,” said co-founder Maribel Quezada Smith.
• VeePod has launched dynamic 3D branding for any video podcast, particularly useful for product placements and logos, as well as busy podcast publishers. The toolkit will be demonstrated at The Podcast Show later this month.
• Yesterday, we reported on what we called Spotify's "video lock-in". This story was based on screenshots of Podigee's implementation of Spotify's video distribution API, which we erroneously attributed to Spotify's own UX: we're happy to make that distinction clear. What's a little less clear is the extent of the lock-in. Spotify denies that creators are permanently "locked in" to using a Spotify API feed if they opt for video distribution in this way, though the company has confirmed that changing your feed back to RSS requires manual work from both the podcast hosting company and from Spotify itself. From others, we hear that this reversion process may remove comments, reviews, and video files from your podcast; and we also understand that following our story yesterday, Spotify has contacted all partners to clarify messaging about this process. Not that any of us would know - at least two podcast hosting companies have told us that the whole API is under a non-disclosure agreement, and that they are prohibited from speaking about it.

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• Thinking of using a podcast hosting company to upload video to Spotify? That ease of use comes with a big cost, we learn today: you will be forever locked in to your current podcast hosting company, according to warnings given by Spotify in the signup process. "This cannot be undone", says one checkbox on Spotify; another points out that "this permanently replaces your RSS feed with API-based distribution", repeating, twice, that "this cannot be undone".
  • Podnews has seen at least 3,500 podcasts switch podcast hosting company in the last 30 days alone: it's part of the freedom given with any RSS feed, allowing you to find better deals and different monetisation options as your podcast grows. It's also, free to upload video to Spotify using the Spotify for Podcasters website - wherever you're hosted.
  • It seems that it's unlikely, however, that podcast hosting companies will mention this lock-in. Podigee, which launched Spotify video this week, doesn't even have any documentation about it (they're working on it, they tell us); while Libsyn, who launched Spotify video distribution last week, don't mention this lockin at all. But then - why would they?

Update: This was based on screenshots of Podigee's implementation of Spotify's video distribution API (which we erroneously attributed to Spotify's own UX). We're happy to make that distinction clear. What's a little less clear is the extent of the lock-in. Spotify denies that creators are permanently "locked in" to using a Spotify API feed if they opt for video distribution through their podcast host, though the company has confirmed that changing your feed back to RSS requires manual work from both the podcast hosting company and from Spotify itself. From others, we hear that this reversion process removes comments, reviews, and video files from your podcast; and we also understand that following our story yesterday, Spotify has contacted all partners to require different messaging about RSS reversion. Not that any of us would know - at least two podcast hosts have told us that the whole API is under a non-disclosure agreement, and that they are prohibited from speaking about it.

• The winners of The Golden Lobes 2026 were announced. The comedy podcast awards hosted by podcast festival Cheerful Earful, gave the Big Ears for Funniest Podcast of the Year to sketch show Crowley Time with me, Tom Crowley. We've a list of all the winners.
• What's going on at self-styled "world's largest indie podcast network", Inception Point AI? The company, which has around 15,000 entirely AI-produced shows, has suddenly stopped auto-publishing new podcasts. Previously, they were pushing out more than two hundred a day. And existing episodes that we have sampled today appear to no longer contain advertising.
  • Jeanine Wright, CEO, tells us: "We’re in the middle of an ongoing platform migration and commercial transition, so some publishing and monetization signals may look unusual from the outside during the handoff. We’re not commenting on counterparties or active negotiations, but the business is very much moving forward. There’s a much more interesting story here than the tired “AI slop” caricature. I’ll be speaking about the future of AI in podcasting at The Podcast Show in London on Thurs May 21 at 2.20pm on the Origin Stage, and I’d encourage anyone interested in what we’re actually building to come hear it directly."
• The Guardian is to announce a flagship US video podcast today. We can tell you it'll be called Stateside with Kai and Carter, and it'll start on May 13th. Of most interest for Podnews are some of the people behind the show - Jonathan Menjivar (ex-Pineapple Street, This American Life, Fresh Air, and creator/host of the acclaimed podcast Classy with Jonathan Menjivar) is executive producing the show alongside deputy executive producer Rachel Humphreys, a Pulitzer Prize finalist who was most recently with WSJ's daily news podcast The Journal. The full announcement is a little later today.

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• Podcast hosting company Captivate has unveiled its Apple Podcasts video support. Their pricing model is a flat $12/month add-on for up to 1,000 video plays. Additional bandwidth costs are charged over that number. Captivate isn't yet supporting the alternate enclosure.
  • Podnews has published a quick price comparison page for video podcast hosting. What's notable is that different companies are charging in very different ways.
• It's emerged that all podcasters wanting to submit video to Apple Podcasts will need to manually get an API key from Apple (docs from Captivate, Podigee or Buzzsprout) and then submit an approval request to Apple Podcasts to enable their podcast in video - and it can take up to two weeks for Apple Podcasts to approve this request. We don't know of any publishers or shows that have been disallowed, however, and there is a suggestion that this is a technical quality check to help the platform with scaling growth. However, neither Spotify nor YouTube charges for bandwidth, and both those companies don't have a pre-publishing approval process.
  • Captivate launched their Apple Podcasts video streaming feature with a special edition of In & Around Podcasting - however, surprisingly, that episode is not yet in video on Apple Podcasts. We bet it's in Apple's approval queue...
• What effect does adding video on Apple Podcasts have on your show's consumption? According to this case study from Transistor and Primary Technology from Stephen Robles... it doubles your plays in Apple Podcasts; and has no effect on your YouTube audience. There are downsides, though - no chapters, no read-along transcripts, and - worse of all - no video at all for users who are paid subscribers. Ouch.

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• Podcast hosting company Podigee has launched video podcast support - for YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Video is available today across every podcast plan; the company says it makes them the first to support video podcast distribution to all three major platforms, across every pricing tier. Pricing starts at €19/month (US $22), for unlimited audio and four video episodes (of up to 30 minutes) per month. The company is based in Berlin, Germany.
  • Podigee tells Podnews that they're "still looking into the implications of adding the alternate enclosure feature", but long term they would like to support it. Support will add video to other, open podcast apps (either as an MP4 or HLS stream). Buzzsprout has also confirmed it is not yet supporting the alternateEnclosure.
  • RAIN reminds us that it's ten years since Spotify launched video shows.
• Acast's Q1/26 financial report says the company has shown "strong profitable growth". Sales were up by 20% (26% in North America); the company made profit of SEK 4.7 (US $0.5mn), which is the company's first ever profitable first quarter.
• Megaphone is switching to use Spotify Ad Server from mid July, allowing new formats of ads including video. Third-party serving via VAST is being removed entirely. As part of this transition, Megaphone has made a number of changes to its promotions booking tool, including limiting promotional audio files to a maximum of 60 seconds. Pre-booking on this new system starts on May 15.

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• Buzzsprout has launched video distribution to Apple Podcasts. The company is charging $30/month for plans that include video (down to $25/month when billed annually); the plan allows up to 6 hours a month of content to be uploaded. The new pricing page also includes a multi-podcast plan; all plans come with transcript generation. Buzzsprout doesn't, yet, support Spotify video.
  • We believe Buzzsprout is the first podcast hosting company to make video on Apple Podcasts generally available. Hosting with other companies is either invite-only, or for enterprise clients.
• Magellan AI announced an expanded partnership with iHeartMedia to offer broadcast radio attribution to advertisers. The attribution will be available for advertisers working with iHeartMedia.
• The Parapod Podcast Awards, recognizing excellence across the rapidly growing paranormal podcasting community, have opened for submissions. You've until September to enter; the awards also announced four special honors for 2026.

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• Apple announced its Q2/26 fiscal financial results. Services revenue, which includes revenue from premium Apple Podcasts subscriptions, reached an all-time high of $31 billion, up +16.3%. The word "podcast" wasn't mentioned in the conference call; though it is available as a podcast - Apple Quarterly Earnings Call. (Weirdly, that podcast isn't on Spotify...)
• Sounds Profitable's Tom Webster gives his detailed thoughts on a rumoured merger between SiriusXM and iHeartMedia. If you wanted detail and proper analysis, and even some hot corporate finance talk, you want this post.
• How does your podcast get featured on Spotify? On Monday, we spoke with Spotify's Lizzy Hale for the official answer. Yet, a UK reader of Podnews spotted a feature for "Podcasts to help save the planet" appear in their app, which might point to an alternative way. Highlighted were podcasts from TEDxLondon, the BBC World Service, and a science podcast from Fresh Air; but the #1 slot was given to a podcast called Heart of the Wild, which is, in its words, "hosted by Dianna Colasurdo, a London-based media executive and passionate animal enthusiast". This show is too small to appear in either Rephonic or Podscribe, so we're impressed that it got the prime position in the Spotify carousel. On LinkedIn, we discover a possible reason why: Dianna Colasurdo is the Government Business Lead... at Spotify.

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Silver supporters: Audacia Audio, Gamut Podcast Network, Bumper, Goalhanger, Sounds Debatable, Magellan AI, Nomono, ARN's iHeartPodcast Network Aust, The Roost, Truefans, SoundStack, Voxtopica, POW PR, Tink Media, PodAnalyst, Blubrry, Podium , Araeya Media, Frequency, Huberman Lab, Locked On Podcast Network, Podcast Movement, Castbox, Jonekiri, Compliance Podcast Network, Ausha, Red Seat Ventures, Companion Arts, The Podcast Haven, Health Podcast Network, Transistor, CreatorX, Rhapsody Voices, Jam Street Media, Rephonic, Diversion Podcasts, Double Elvis Productions, Lemonada Media, Sonic Influencer Marketing, Headliner, Content10x, Podcast Partnership, Cleanfeed, Lower Street, Podigy, Revolver Podcasts, School of Podcasting, Adopter Media, Signal Hill Insights

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• I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want - I want three new video-capable podcast studios. Acast has upgraded its studios in Stockholm and Oslo, and Acast's new video podcast studio in Woolloomoolloo in Sydney has officially had it's first guest: none other than Sporty Spice herself, Mel C, in a new episode of The Mitch Churi Chat Show out today.
  • Acast has also made a number of key hires in Sweden: Otto Jorméus joins as Content Director, while Gustaf Angelin has been hired as Video and Podcast Producer.
• An email to Captivate customers suggests that the podcast hosting company will launch Apple Podcasts video "from next week".
• Following Libsyn's announcement that they now support Spotify video distribution, the company has also announced that all Libsyn creators can upload up to 100GB of storage per month for video files (and the Pro plans have no limit). "It's really important to us that our creators can lean into video in a way that makes sense for their show, without overly restrictive limitations," a spokesperson told us. Their audio upload limit is unchanged.

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• The POSSIBLE conference is taking place in Miami. Here's a glimpse in video form. Among the speakers were Black Effect's Charlamagne the God, being interviewed by iHeart CEO Bob Pittman for a live recording of Math & Magic. The two started the conversation with rapid-fire personal questions, with Charlamagne revealing Jay-Z is his favorite artist of all time, before moving into a wide-ranging discussion on how influence is built in a media landscape shaped by constant content, platform fragmentation, and AI-generated everything. The audience also heard from Liz Plank, the host of Boy Problems, about Gen Z masculinity.
  • The real star is clearly today: the Innovation Stage will be the host to Matt Drengler from our title sponsor Podscribe, showing how to buy audio more effectively and drive measurable results. 12.10pm ET.
• Libsyn has announced that it can now distribute video to Spotify, and that video functionality is available across all Libsyn hosting plans.
  • Submission to Spotify uses the Spotify Distribution API, which was announced in January. Spotify video distribution is available on Libsyn plans starting at $25/month. All Libsyn customers can still upload manually on Spotify's website.
  • "Video functionality" refers to MP4 video episodes, which the company has always made available (and is supported in apps like Pocket Casts and Apple Podcasts); though the company gives a limited amount of monthly storage for uploads - 162MB for the $8 plan, or 540MB for the $25/month plan. (the company has confirmed this is for audio only; all non-Pro customers get 100GB of video storage per month.)
  • The latest episode of The New Media Show is an interview with Brendan Monaghan, the President and CEO of Libsyn, where he talks about Libsyn's future. This episode's video file is 3,198MB (48MB per minute).
• Spotify released its Q1/26 financial report. Auction-based revenue (the Spotify Ad Exchange and Spotify Ads Manager) is now nearing 25% of all ad revenue, which declined -5% year-on-year and -25% q-on-q. The company now has 761 million monthly active users (+12% y-on-y), and paying subscribers increased +9%. Shares fell 14% after a disappointing income forecast.
  • The slides show how comparatively insignificant Spotify's ads business is, with gross profit from ads contributing just 8.4% of total profit. Gross margins for each suggest that ad revenue is also around half as profitable as premium subscriber revenue.
  • Meanwhile, Spotify's audiobooks service is not really having much impact to audiobook listening, says some new research; Mediavision suggests that audiobooks only represent 5% of listening on the service, a quarter of that of podcasting.

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