Apple's Video Podcasts: Here's The Catch | Ep. 83

Apple Podcasts just announced video support, but what does it really mean for creators like us? In this episode, I break down the Apple Podcasts video update, the real story behind HLS streaming, and why showing up on camera is still the fastest way to build trust—especially in a world flooded with AI content. I’ll share what’s actually changing, which hosts support video, and why YouTube is still king for discoverability. Let’s cut through the hype together!

🔥 Build your Binge-Worthy Video Brand with EASE + simplicity: https://videobrand.link/wV72LsI 

📹 Be Binge-worthy on YouTube: https://videobrand.link/become-bingeable

🟣 Video Brand Academy: https://videobrand.link/vba 

🎥 CRUSH IT ON CAMERA GUIDE: https://vidpromom.com/crush

🎧 Video Brand Infusion Podcast: http://meredithmarsh.co/podcast 

📲 Download my FREE Video Brand Academy app! 👉 https://videobrand.link/app

👉 Consistent Sales of Your Course with YouTube: https://youtu.be/GBhulsp0s-4 

📹 Follow on YouTube for Video Podcast: https://youtu.be/zkscCExxg9Y?si=B2EAIPxJV0-jEP-7

Transcript

Okay. When I saw this announcement, I immediately knew that the videos aren't podcasts, crowd. I'm putting that in air quotes. We're going to lose their minds. So here's the thing. In a world where we are so flooded with AI content, even on video. Showing up as a real human on camera is like the single fastest way to build trust in your niche, especially online, right?

And with the explosion of both audio and video distribution. Now we have YouTube, we have Spotify, I,we have all of the social media platforms, our video platforms. There has truly never been a more exciting time to be a podcaster or a video podcaster. Should I say?

except. There is a catch. There's a few catches. So what I'm talking about here is Apple's announcement about Apple Podcasts finally adding video. They've already had video. We'll talk about that in a second. But if you just follow the hype and follow the headlines, you might look at that and go, oh, cool.

I can take my YouTube videos and put them On the Apple Podcast app. Now, bonus. 

so in this episode of Video Brand Infusion, I want to make sure that you are informed.

I wanna break down that announcement for you so you have all the info you need before you start making plans to create Apple Video Podcasts.

My name is Meredith. I'm the founder of Video Brand Academy, and I work with solo online business owners to grow your audience and generate consistent revenue in your business by building your binge worthy video brand on YouTube I've been fascinated by the intersection of video and podcasting for the last couple of years. I started this video podcast two years ago now, partially as an experiment, to see how it would go, and also because I wanted to. Use this fancy new feature that YouTube had called YouTube podcasts and it's worked out really well for me.

I really enjoy it and I do believe that videos are podcasts. I think they can be one in the same as long as you also distribute your audio through RSS,

 so when I see a headline like the Apple Podcast is getting video, my first thought was.

They already have video. A lot of people don't know that, but they do. My second thought was, the videos aren't podcast crowded, gonna lose their mind, and I'm here for it, honestly. And the third thing I thought was, wow, this is really exciting. And then I went to go read the actual announcement to make sense of what they're really saying and what they're really announcing.

And it's not as exciting as it sounds. First of all, I wanna mention that if you've been in the podcasting space and if you've been on social media, it's easy to get kind of like swept up in this debate over video versus audio. And so Apple making an announcement about this, like really kind of shook things up on the social medias that I'm usually on, which is usually just threads. And I am always so surprised, I'm totally biased. Obviously, I've been doing YouTube for 11 years. I teach people how to do YouTube. I'm very biased towards video content. But even in 2026 when we have this enormous influx of AI video content slash. Slop as some people like to call it, even in 2026. There are people that are still really trying to convince content creators or like would be podcasters that you don't have to worry about being on camera.

You don't have to worry about making a video version of your podcast. Don't worry about that. Just record audio. And I think if all you can do is audio. That's great. Create your audio only content. But why are we encouraging people to, deliberately encouraging people to not expand? Outside of the box of podcasting, why are we deliberately encouraging people to put time and energy into something for a minimal exposure and reach and listenership when they could be putting the same amount of energy to get even more exposure, reach and listenership.

I get it, some people don't wanna do video content. That's fine. It's just we're inundated with all of this AI nonsense and it's so much easier to just be a human on camera 

Anyway, here's what you need to know about the Apple announcement one. Um, it is still in beta. I don't know when it's supposed to be released. I don't keep track of like. When the different OS has come out, but I believe that it is still in beta. That means if you open up your Apple Podcast app, you may or may not see, uh, videos in there.

And so I don't know how it's gonna look once they are in there. 

 now I mentioned that Apple has always had video, podcasts. Um, I don't know if they've had it from day one, but they've had video podcasts for a very long time. The problem with what they have had is the video content was distributed via RSS, just like your audio content, and so you had to have.

Two different RSS feeds. One was like your audio RSS feed and one was your video. feed. And um, so that was kinda weird and wonky. This is totally different. This isn't distributing. Your video like podcast file via RSS. It's a technology called HLS, And HLS really threw people for a loop because HLS stands for HTTP live streaming, and it's a way of like distributing an audio file in the most efficient way possible to, you know, as many people as possible. varying devices, on varying internet speeds. Cell phone tower speeds. And, um, like the technology involved is like a little beyond me, but a lot of people were very confused thinking that Apple had announced live streaming through Apple Podcast. But HLS is a way of distributing. Livestream content, but also just video content in general in small chunks. So I asked Claude to explain HLS to me like I was five, and here's what it said.

And I think this makes a lot of sense. If you try to eat an entire Hershey bar, you wouldn't just put the entire bar in your mouth, you would choke on it and it wouldn't be very enjoyable. But if you break it off into pieces. You can actually consume the whole chocolate bar without making a mess, without choking on it. And you can still consume the entire contents of the bar, but in smaller pieces. 

So that's basically how HLS works. Now, here's where things get a little bit complicated, because even if you are excited about this and you're like, oh, I make video podcasts look like Meredith tells me to do, and I put them on YouTube and I put them on Spotify, I can put them on Apple Podcasts too.

Great, wonderful. Love it.

The catch is that even if you wanted to use this new feature, you might not be able to because as of right now, there are only four-ish, I think. Yeah, four hosting companiesWho are even able to do this with Apple, and even if you are a customer of one of those hosting companies, even then, I don't know that they necessarily are gonna let. All of their customers, like take part in this during this like beta. 

 so those hosting companies are a cast art 19 Omni Studio and simple cast. Now I use Buzz Sprout for my hosting company for the audio version of my podcast. And um, I'm saying it like that because Buzz Sprout has been, say they're not anti video. I don't think they love video content for podcasting.

Um, and so I don't know if they ever will support video hosting. There are other, hosts like you can host your video podcast with Podbean, but they're not one of the four hosting companies that are like integrated with Apple Podcasts to distribute. Video content right now at this moment, maybe they'll be added in the future.

And when I first started doing research on video podcasting, two years ago, what I noticed was the cost of paying for hosting of your video podcast file was pretty astronomical for what you got. I think. don't wanna misquote myself. I did a whole video on it. It's on my YouTube channel, but you've got like not very much storage space for, uh, like a hundred dollars a month or something.

And it just seems crazy. Like just YouTube is free. Upload your stuff to YouTube, doesn't cost you the creator anything to host your videos on YouTube. But if you wanna get it distributed to Apple Podcasts, for example, it's going to have to be like. Hosted somewhere, so I'm sure there will be more hosting companies in the future, But right now you're pretty limited. And if you host your podcast with any of the companies I mentioned, a Cast Art 19 Omni Studio, or simple cast, let me know in the comments of this video if you've seen anything that says, Hey. Do you wanna upload a video with your podcast so you can be an Apple podcast?

 let me know in the comments if you're seeing anything like that, because I'm not totally sure how that's gonna work. 

now from what I understand with this announcement from Apple and Apple Podcasts, on the surface it kind of looks like Apple is. Finally trying to compete with YouTube for, uh, video dominance. But I don't think that's the case. I mean, first of all, apple Podcast is awful for trying to search for something, like something specific.

You search for something and there's no controls that I have found over like. Can you give me results that were published in the last week or the last month? It doesn't work like that. it's really like distribution wise, discoverability wise, nothing tops YouTube for that. So while on the surface it looks like Apple is just like, Hey, let's compete with YouTube here. The key point of the announcement is really centered around advertising. Apple wants to be able to benefit profit from like dynamic ad insertion and the way things are set up right now, they really don't. And so this HLS technology being integrated into Apple Podcasts has a lot to do with ads and ad insertions and Apple wanting to get a little chunk of that pie. It is not that Apple is trying to build a discovery engine, um, like YouTube where people can really easily find your content. ItAt least that's what I gather from the announcement, from what I understand now, the strategic takeaway for you, if you're a business owner, if you're a solo online business owner, if you're a small business owner and you create content on the internet, you create video content on YouTube, you create podcast content that's audio only.

The strategic takeaway for you is that you don't really have to do anything different because. This new announcement, this new feature isn't really available to us yet, and even if it was, I still don't know that it would be beneficial if you're gonna have to pay a large chunk every month to host your videos so that they can be distributed.

then you're, paying to have your videos distributed on a platform that's really bad for discoverability. So keep doing YouTube, keep making videos, keep showing up as a human on camera. 

Because Apple's announcement is a great reminder that the video landscape is always changing Right now. It's still continuing to grow and expand. That's why I love what we do inside of Video Brand Academy because we meet every week with live coaching calls where we discuss what's working now on YouTube, what's working with video content in general, and. You are never just out there on your own wondering, what should I do on my channel next? what videos should I create? Am I doing this right? Am I going in the right direction? 

Because this landscape of video content and content creation for business in general is not gonna stop shifting. It's always shifting. I mean, look how many changes have taken place just in the last three to four years. So if keeping up with all of these changes. It tends to feel like a full-time job. That's what we help you with inside a video brand academy. So I'll put a link down below to VBA so you can check it out for yourself 

 and don't worry about the hype, just keep showing up as a human on camera and you'll be fine. We'll be fine.