Video Pods Are Eating TV. Apple Wants In
The $5,000-a-week ‘filler’ show for streamers is here
This is a preview of Like & Subscribe, my standalone Ankler Media newsletter on the creator economy. I wrote about the debate among creators over whether to form a union; talked to Mark Fischbach (aka Markiplier) about his film, Iron Lung; and wrote about TikTok’s and BuzzFeed’s moves into the microdrama space. I’m natalie@theankler.com
I first discovered podcasts in the years immediately after I graduated college, before there was a podcast app on my iPhone and when some of my favorite shows were ones I could watch — yes, watch — on iTunes. Apple pioneered podcasting, but over the past decade-and-a-half, it’s lost major ground to competitors like Spotify and YouTube, particularly as the industry (not to mention the audience) has become enamored with video.
Apple is taking steps to change that, announcing yesterday a new video experience within its Podcasts app designed to solve some of the problems that have kept it from joining the massive video podcast wave. The tech giant will now power video podcasts using a web streaming technology that will simplify the process for both podcasters and their fans. The company is touting benefits including a more seamless experience switching between audio and video in the app, streaming that adjusts to a user’s internet connection and dynamic advertising interstitials in video episodes. Apple will charge ad networks an “impression-based fee” to deliver video ads, giving the company a toehold in the podcast ad business for the first time ever.
Apple is finally responding to a reality the rest of the industry has already embraced: Podcasts are no longer just audio — they’re television.
It’s remarkable Apple waited this long to introduce better video capabilities given how much of a head start it had in podcasting, but it’s an open question whether the tech giant can pull users back in with the improved experience. Its podcast platform is now the No. 3 most popular — behind YouTube and Spotify — with 14 percent of weekly listeners age 13 and up naming it their app of choice, per podcast measurement firm Edison. Few podcasters until now have made video versions of their shows available on Apple — many (including Ankler Media) have been directing listeners to YouTube for video because Apple’s RSS feed technology was outdated.
It’s not just podcasting being upended by the pivot to video — it’s also fundamentally changing how the major television networks and streamers think about their own lineups. As one pod executive recently told me, “Podcasting is taking over daytime television.” The recent cancellation of syndicated talk show Sherri, plus Kelly Clarkson’s announcement that she’s ending her daytime talker, have fueled this narrative (though the simple, grim economics of linear TV and the huge staffs required to put on such shows also have a lot to do with it).
Americans are already spending 773 million hours a week on podcasts, according to Edison. The real question isn’t whether podcasts are competing with television. It’s whether they’re replacing the syndicated talk shows and soap operas that have been a TV schedule staple for decades.
As Hulu joins Netflix in the race to pick up top podcast shows, I dig into that possibility over at Like & Subscribe, where I’ll also break down for you:
The economics of video podcasts, including the exact cost of producing episodes and how shockingly low even the high-end budgets are
Hulu’s pod strategy: pull audience and shore up one of its top stars
What pods are replacing for TV viewers — and why the swap is a no-brainer for streamers
How the rise of video podcasting has changed the charts and opened a pipeline for a different kind of talent
Why some of the biggest podcasters aren’t budging even for a big streamer’s money or audience
Joe Rogan, Pat McAfee and the cautionary tales of indie talent moving onto bigger corporate platforms
The opportunity for creators as platforms multiply, and how they keep their brand “distinct” while growing with new audiences
As the lines blur, what “podcast” means now and how much longer it will matter
The rest of this column is for paid subscribers to Like & Subscribe, a standalone newsletter dedicated to the creator economy from Ankler Media.
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