Apple Podcasts is Adding Live Video Streams

Apple announced today that it will bring HTTP Live Streaming (HLS) to its Apple Podcasts app this Spring. With this shift, users will be able to switch between audio and video streams, view video podcasts full-screen in landscape mode, and download videos for offline viewing.

“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,” Apple SVP Eddy Cue said. “Today marks a defining milestone in that journey. 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.”

With this “transformative” update, Apple Podcasts will support:

• Seamless switching between watching and listening to shows
• Switching between portrait and landscape mode display for videos
• Smooth playback thanks to automatic quality adjustment powered by HLS technology
• Video podcast integration with personalized recommendations and editorial curation on the New tab and in Category pages

For creators, Apple Podcasts will support dynamic video ad insertion, including host-read spots, for the first time. In addition to dynamic advertising, creators will be able to monetize through sponsorships as well, and Apple will not charge hosting providers or creators to distribute podcasts on Apple Podcasts, whether via traditional RSS/MP3 or HLS video. It will, however, charge participating ad networks an impression-based fee for the delivery of dynamic ads in HLS video on Apple Podcasts starting later this year. Apple Podcasts HLS video will be supported by Acast, ART19, Omny Studio, and SiriusXM at launch, and Apple says additional providers will join in the future.

Creators can learn more about this advance on the Apple Podcasts for Creators website.

For users, HLS video podcast support is available in beta versions of iOS 26.4, iPadOS 26.4, and visionOS 26.4. It will ship in stable in the Spring, Apple says.