RE: Interview with Amazon - Mr Boom7 Aug 2025 14:30
Indeed, in a survey conducted this spring, Cumulus Podcast Network and Signal Hill Insights found that while podcasts you can watch are growing in popularity, particularly among new podcast consumers, 72 percent of people said they consume podcasts both ways.
“I have some clients that it’s just not their bag, and that’s totally fine,” the dealmaker says of video. “It doesn’t have to be the same strategy for everyone. I don’t think anyone’s being left behind.”
Amid the rise of video, people across the industry are grappling with nomenclature. “What’s a podcast anymore?” asks the executive. “I think if we’re looking at podcasting in five years from now, we’re talking about shows. That’s all that’s going to matter.”
To call something a “video podcast” is a bit clunky. But the alternatives aren’t much better. Vodcasts? Good luck getting that one to stick. The word podcast isn’t the sexiest, but it’s endured — and has pod as an easy casual stand-in — even if Gen Z can barely comprehend why podcasts were called podcasts in the first place. (For the youths, it’s because we once listened to them on iPods).
“The word podcast is a descriptor for a type of conversation,” says the dealmaker. “When people say they watch podcasts or they listen to podcasts, whatever, they’re thinking about the format more than they’re thinking about the way it’s transmitted to them.”
That makes sense in theory. But will a podcast still be a podcast if it’s streaming on Netflix? How about if it’s broadcast as a Twitch live stream? And if those are podcasts, is the audio-only narrative show that an indie producer makes on the cheap also still a podcast?
“Mark my words,” says my dealmaker source with a laugh. “In 10 years, ‘You have a face for podcasting’ will be a compliment.”
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