Notices by John Spurlock (js@podcastindex.social)

‘It’s a tale as old as time: Are you a corporate titan, unhappy with how you or your company are portrayed in the realm of popular opinion? Good news: You can buy the media.’

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/billionares-buying-media-deals-openai-tbpn-larry-ellison-1236554833/

just realized every single podcaster is going to make some sort of "we're for sale at the right price" joke in their next episode

get ready folks

@tchambers I believe there is a community-maintained one here:

https://podcastindex.org/apps

‘Every podcast host was built for humans uploading files through a dashboard. PodClaw is built for agents — one REST call to publish and distribute.’

🦞 🦞 🦞

https://podclaw.io/

RE: https://podcastindex.social/@js/116296287122335618

...and just like that - @transistor wins this one 🏆

All of the HLS episodes sent to Apple Podcasts are _also_ in the corresponding RSS feeds using podcast:alternateEnclosure for both of these @stephenrobles shows

https://feeds.transistor.fm/primary-technology
https://feeds.transistor.fm/mots

Now that iOS 26.4 is official, and Apple Podcasts supports HLS video, I've updated my analysis with more data:
- updated show/episode counts
- added an Omny analysis
- added an Audiomeans analysis
- removed Simplecast placeholder, limiting to found publishers only

https://livewire.io/hls-video-in-podcasts/

@jeff @tchambers

they absolutely do not provide API access to their generated transcripts

in podcasting, the publisher is the source of truth, and the apps can pick up metadata from the open feed.

Apple supports publisher-provided transcripts in rss feeds using the new-ish podcast:transcript tag

(asterisk the podcaster has to log into their show's portal and allow it)

(asterisk and only if the publisher transcript is Close Enough™️ to Apple's generated one)

ok there are far more HLS video shows in Apple Podcasts at launch than I expected

nice work

with today's public release of HLS video in Apple Podcasts, I am now seeing 48 shows that support it

breakdown by hosting company:
- acast: 31
- art19: 10
- omny: 2
- transistor: 2
- podigee: 2
- audiomeans: 1

(also 2 shows that _were_ doing HLS during the beta and went back to audio only)

not to be outdone, the Apple Podcasts web team updated the web app today to support the new hls video stuff

very similar to the native app, including the special video icon

still the only way to watch these on a laptop, as the Apple Podcast app for macOS does not support them (not on tvOS either)

‘We knew bots were part of the landscape, but we didn't appreciate the scale, sophistication, or speed at which they'd find us. We banned tens of thousands of accounts. We deployed internal tooling and industry-standard external vendors. None of it was enough.’

https://digg.com/

‘As the older generations die, they take with them their knowledge of what was lost when the new technology arrived. Only the sense of what was gained remains. It’s in this way that progress covers its tracks, perpetually refreshing the illusion that where we are is where we were meant to be.’

https://www.newcartographies.com/p/flame-and-filament

Seeing "ingest" used in some of the analysis around the upcoming Apple HLS video podcast feature.

This is wrong.

One of the coolest parts of the new feature is that Apple is _not_ "ingesting" (nom, nom) anything.

It merely has a url pointer to the video hosted _elsewhere_ - exactly like podcasting has always been.

No ingestion!

‘As Abdine put it, “A very important core truth of podcasting is you meet your audience where they live.”’

https://deadline.com/2026/02/netflix-video-podcasts-analysis-deal-analysis-1236728838/

@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

@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.

@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

@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.

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

not sure I understand the second part of your question

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

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