(Bloomberg) — More than 1 billion people a month are viewing podcast content on YouTube, the result of an investment push that has made the Alphabet Inc. platform the most popular service for podcasts in the US.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth,” Tim Katz, vice president for partnerships at YouTube, said in an interview. YouTube first identified podcasts as a popular content format during the pandemic. Before then the medium wasn’t something YouTube had specifically supported, nor did it seek out these types of creators, he said.
“Podcasters were organically coming onto YouTube, and users were flocking to their content,” Katz said. “At that point, we were like, ‘We should lean in.’”
YouTube dedicated employees to the effort, ensured podcasters could sign up for the platform’s ads service, offered more robust analytics and recommended more podcast content to viewers and listeners.
Those endeavors vaulted YouTube past Spotify Technology SA, which helped define the podcasting boom when it invested more than $1 billion on acquisitions and licensing deals for popular shows. But in 2022 after investors grew weary of Spotify’s profligate spending, the music streaming company shuttered its in-house podcasting studio, reduced headcount and significantly paired back its podcasting efforts. Around the same time, YouTube began offering as much as $300,000 to podcasters to entice them to create video versions of their shows.
The YouTube podcast trend “existed but it was a matter of us pouring some gas on it,” Katz said. Podcasters are now able to tag their content as such, helping YouTube’s search algorithm to surface the programs to more people who already consume podcasts. YouTube wants to continue to improve ways for podcasters to make money and to support multiple languages so shows can be consumed around the world, Katz said.
Last year, viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices, according to YouTube. In October, Edison Research pronounced YouTube the most popular podcast platform in the US, superseding Spotify and Apple Inc.’s Podcasts app.
Spotify is also doubling down on video podcasts. It rolled out a new partner program in January that pays video creators based on consumption rather than ad revenue and has courted popular podcasters in an effort to convince them to put their shows on the service. As of June 2024, Spotify said about 170 million people had watched a video podcast on its platform and earlier this year said it has more more than 300,000 video podcasts on the site.
“In general, I’m sure they’re seeing the same trends that we’re seeing on our platform — that users want to consume video content,” Katz said.
Video podcasts have been credited with helping President Donald Trump win the election last year. He reached millions of viewers on YouTube with appearances on top shows like The Joe Rogan Experience and Last Weekend with Theo Von. During Trump’s inauguration weekend, Spotify and YouTube feted podcasters and praised the medium’s influence.
Still, podcast creators worry the push for video could alienate certain styles of shows, like long-form narrative programs along the lines of Serial. At the same time, many podcasters have built studios or added video components to their programs to capitalize on YouTube’s prominence and take advantage of short-form clip platforms, like TikTok, to fuel discovery.