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1. Embed this notice
   John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 02:47:13 JST John Spurlock

   started a list of Apple Podcasts shows with HLS video support, have you found any others?

   https://gist.github.com/johnspurlock/0498c4323ee645dc4b70f1fc3a031499

   • Embed this notice
     Tim Chambers (tchambers@indieweb.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 02:50:10 JST Tim Chambers

     in reply to

     @js Question: can creators support this but only if their podcasts hosting solution does? (I’d assume so) and secondly does creator support help drive adoption beyond Apple now? (I’d also assume so)

   • Embed this notice
     Tim Chambers (tchambers@indieweb.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 02:57:28 JST Tim Chambers

     in reply to

     @js My question is if they got bigger name creatators to vocally support this format and use it does that help drive the rest of the ecosystem....

   • Embed this notice
     John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 02:57:30 JST John Spurlock

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers

     @tchambers only if their podcast hosting company does, right now there are four

     not sure I understand the second part of your question

   • Embed this notice
     John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 04:14:04 JST John Spurlock

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers

     @tchambers eh, the experience goes through their hosting company, which might look different from company to company.

     I'd imagine the typical flow is: creator gives the hosting company one huge video, and the hosting company chops it up, creates the HLS, inserts any dynamic ad interstitials, and hosts the playlist and media segments.

     Creators never see HLS.

     Tim Chambers repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 04:14:42 JST John Spurlock

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers

     @tchambers some hosting companies do the latter (hls in rss), but not the former (hls in apple podcasts) like the RSS.com announcement I mentioned earlier

     which, if I'm understanding it properly is essentially "bring your own HLS url" - in this case it would be on the creator to chop/host the hls and media segments somewhere themselves

   • Embed this notice
     John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 04:14:43 JST John Spurlock

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers

     @tchambers _some_ hosting companies might _also_ choose to include the HLS in the RSS feed as well, which is the only thing that really helps the open podcasting world.

     But that's not required by any means.

     Tim Chambers repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Tim Chambers (tchambers@indieweb.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 04:20:23 JST Tim Chambers

     in reply to

     • Dave

     @dave @js

     So how does Apple podcats as a service support HLS video as of today exactly?

     Press releases like this one sounded like they *were* delivering HLS video via the "podcast" but what I'm hearing is that may not be via RSS?

     https://www.ithinkdiff.com/apple-podcasts-native-video-support-ios-26-4/

   • Embed this notice
     Dave (dave@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 04:20:25 JST Dave

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers

     @tchambers @js There are two things that play: HLS video format itself, and distribution of HLS content through RSS feeds. Apple is supporting the first but not the latter.

     Only thing to do is to keep advocating for them to support the new alternate enclosure tag in the RSS feed so that their app will consume HLS from anywhere and not just from select partner companies through a proprietary backend upload mechanism.

     Tim Chambers repeated this.
   • Embed this notice
     Tim Chambers (tchambers@indieweb.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 04:24:53 JST Tim Chambers

     in reply to

     • Dave

     @dave @js

     Actually I think i just found out the answer:

     "Apple Podcasts is not doing video via RSS. You still need an RSS feed to publish a show but once you’ve published the audio, your podcast hosting provider needs to separately send an HLS playlist URL for that episode to Apple Podcasts, which it does using a special API that the podcast hosting provider has access to."

     "https://www.ithinkdiff.com/apple-podcasts-native-video-support-ios-26-4/

   • Embed this notice
     Tim Chambers (tchambers@indieweb.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 05:48:54 JST Tim Chambers

     in reply to

     • Dave

     @js @dave Yeah; how much easier just to support RSS enclosures than that. Well, baby steps.

   • Embed this notice
     John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 05:48:55 JST John Spurlock

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers
     • Dave

     @tchambers @dave yea the hosting company calls the Apple api to associate an HLS url with an existing podcast episode, using an API key given to them by the creator

     https://podcasters.apple.com/support/5593-how-to-publish-video

   • Embed this notice
     Dave (dave@podcastindex.social)'s status on Friday, 20-Feb-2026 10:48:43 JST Dave

     in reply to

     • Tim Chambers

     @tchambers @js the iHeart app recently announced support for HLS content delivered by the alternate enclosure RSS feed tag. So, there is a bifurcation happening.

     I truly believe that Apple podcasts will support HLS through the alternate closure tag at some point in the future. I have zero proof for this. It’s one part wishful thinking, and one part belief in the people on that team, based on experience.