People sitting in front of the TV today might be more likely to flick on a podcast than a prime-time talk show.
Audio conversations once relegated to earbuds are now finding more video viewership on digital platforms, adding increased reach along with lucrative advertising revenue to the already popular format.
YouTube, which has become a leading destination for podcast consumers in recent years, said that viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts per month on their TVs in 2024.
“They’ve been tuning into podcasts similarly to how one would tune into a late-night talk show,” Kurt Wilms, the senior director of product management at YouTube, wrote in a blog post this month.
The platform, which first found success on computers and smartphones, has also made inroads into TV viewership. YouTube accounted for 10.4% of all TV viewing in July 2024, according to data from the media analytics company Nielsen, ahead of competitors including The Walt Disney Co. and NBCUniversal (NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC news).
Other platforms are also seeing podcast video growth. At a Spotify event in November, the streaming platform revealed that more than 250 million of its users have watched a video podcast, with nearly two-thirds of users in 2024 preferring their podcasts with video.
This growth comes as traditional TV talk shows continue to struggle along with most linear and cable broadcast programs.
Podcasts first emerged in the mid-2000s and remained a small, niche market for years before the industry’s first big hit, “Serial,” gave the medium a jolt of attention and gravitas. Media companies invested in their own podcasts in a similar vein, aiming to capture listeners with compelling, limited-run shows.
Many of those shows found some success and widespread attention but struggled to capture the buzz of “Serial,” which documented the decadeslong legal saga of Adnan Syed. Meanwhile, simpler, personality-driven shows began to take off, with many big podcasters launching national tours featuring live tapings with audiences.
While 2023 was a tough year for podcasts as a whole, popular podcasts retained — and in some instances grew — their audiences in 2024.
Josh Lindgren, head of Creative Artists Agency’s podcast department, said there’s been a huge shift in the industry in favor of talk show-style, interview-oriented podcasts — as evidenced by the dominance of longtime chart-toppers such as Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” and Joe Rogan’s “The Joe Rogan Experience,” as well as newer entrants like Haliey Welch’s “Talk Tuah.”
“We’ve seen a real growth in public figures who have a message to get out seeing the value in podcasting as a way to give a nuanced and long-form answer, and a different type of glimpse into what they’re thinking or what they’re doing,” Lindgren said. “And that’s the same if you’re an actor who’s promoting a new movie or if you’re a politician who wants to talk about policy.”
The 2024 election helped drive that point home, with podcasts suddenly becoming a vital campaign tool. Donald Trump appeared on podcasts hosted by comedians who are known for their appeal with conservative-leaning audiences, including Rogan, Andrew Schulz and Theo Von. Meanwhile, Vice President Kamala Harris sat down with Cooper on “Call Her Daddy,” popular with millennials and Gen-Zers.
“We just saw in this election cycle, as an example, presidential candidates going on podcasts as a way of reaching audiences,” said Travis Dunlap, an agent at William Morris Endeavor who has worked in the podcasting space for nearly a decade. “And so it really has become the most modern version of a talk show.”
“Gone are the days where people can look at YouTube as an offshoot alternative to TV,” he added. “It is TV today.”
Many podcasts in recent years have built sizable audiences by reaching new listeners through clips posted to TikTok and YouTube Shorts. In an attempt to leverage the potential of video discoverability, Spotify also recently introduced short clip recommendations in the app to boost visibility for its video podcasts.
Edison Research, which produces survey-based podcast listening data, found that 81% of weekly podcast listeners above age 13 listen to or watch podcasts with a video component, according to the company’s third-quarter podcast metrics.
Tom Webster, a partner at podcast trade association Sounds Profitable, said that video podcasts are giving audiences a more interactive experience than many of the TV talk shows that once commanded living rooms, especially with the decline of traditional live and studio audiences.
“What video podcasts give you is a comment section, and you can plant a flag for a community there in a way that’s sort of disappeared from TV,” Webster said. “I look at a podcast that’s on YouTube as a place where people really engage with each other and potentially engage with creators and the hosts and feel like they’re being seen, feel like they’re being heard.”
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