Apple made its announcement on Monday that a new integrated video podcast will come to Apple Podcasts in the spring. The shift comes at a time when video viewership is transforming podcasting. Edison Research estimates that approximately 37 percent of individuals above the age of 12 years watch video podcasts monthly.
The new update brings Apple Podcasts much closer to its competitors, Spotify, YouTube, and currently Netflix which have been moving more towards video podcasting.
Apple’s Senior Vice President of Services, Eddy Cue, said in a statement, “Twenty years ago, Apple helped take podcasting mainstream by adding podcasts to iTunes, and more than a decade ago, we introduced the dedicated Apple Podcasts app. By bringing a category-leading video experience to Apple Podcasts, we’re putting creators in full control of their content and how they build their businesses, while making it easier than ever for audiences to listen to or watch podcasts.”
The Apple Podcasts app will allow its users to seamlessly alternate between video streaming and audio streaming to shows from the same feed. They also have the picture-in-picture mode and can download video episodes to watch them offline.
Although Apple Podcasts has been adding video, via RSS, since 2005, the feeds had been stored separately, even as audio versions of the same programme. The latest update brings the support of HLS, or HTTP Live Streaming, a streaming protocol created by Apple that allows adaptive video playback and additional control features in the app.
However, the dynamic video ad insertion is also brought by the new HLS format. Producers distributing via participating hosting companies and advertisement networks will be in a position to place video advertisements, including host-read positions, into episodes.
Apple indicated that it would not charge creators or hosting enterprises to disseminate content. It will offer an impression-based charge to participating ad networks to deliver dynamic video ads with HLS.
These launch podcast hosting partners include Acast, Amazon-owned ART19, Triton’s Omny Studio, and SiriusXM, who will all be supporting HLS video. The announcement is made at a time when its competitors are still investing in podcast video.
YouTube added that last year it had more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcast content on its platform. Spotify has also increased its video podcast content and reported to have paid out over $100 million to podcasters during the first quarter of last year.
Netflix has also ventured into the video podcast. The streaming platform had a deal with Spotify last year to provide video podcasts to Netflix and has started investing in original video podcast programming, including “The Pete Davidson Show,” which launched in January.
Apple does not segregate the revenue of Apple Podcasts itself, although the Services division, which encompasses digital content and subscription business, had generated $30 billion of revenue in its last quarter.
The company acquired Israeli artificial intelligence startup Q.ai in January for an undisclosed amount. The company has not published the purchase information, but the Q.ai site stated that it was developing audio-centered AI tools.
