¶ "Video podcasts are amazing" - Steve Jobs, 2005
And the video quality is just amazing for watching video podcasts, for watching anything that you've got that you wanna see on your iPod.
¶ The myth: "A podcast was never meant to be watched"
Justin JacksonI keep seeing this sentiment expressed online. A podcast was never meant to be watched. It was meant to be heard. This idea that podcasts have always been audio only is just not true. Here's Steve Jobs demoing video podcasts on stage in October 2005. That's just four months after Apple added podcast support in iTunes.
¶ Steve Jobs demos video podcasts on the iMac and iPod
There's my computer and this is front row. That's all it takes to get in it. I have all of the music from my iTunes music library and all of my playlists. And so I can just go down here and shuffle songs, I can go into playlists, look at artists, podcasts, whatever I want. And, we've got video podcasts again, see what's in video podcasts, know, for those who've seen Tiki Bar, we probably won't go into this, but you can see video podcasts on here, which is really great.
And again, all these things just get put in here automatically for you, if you have them on your computer. And the video quality is just amazing for watching iMovies, for watching video podcasts, for watching music videos, for watching anything that you've got that you wanna see on your iPod. It's pretty amazing.
Justin JacksonSo there you go. Video podcasts were basically available on iTunes and iPods from the beginning. In iTunes, you could actually filter the entire podcast directory by video. Audio and video podcasts were browsed side by side. And I people forget about this, but there were hugely popular shows like Tiki Bar TV.
¶ Tiki Bar TV, Rocketboom, Diggnation
The doctor is in. Now what? But the problem is that you're a beatnik poet.
Justin JacksonRocketboom and Dignation that started in 2005 long before YouTube was acquired and became the de facto place for video. These shows were building massive audiences.
And I think this belief that podcasting must be audio is mostly an artifact of Apple neglecting video in its Apple Podcast app from 2012 to 2025. So now there's this whole generation of podcast listeners who grew up never knowing that video was always a big part of the story. And so now in 2026, Apple's bringing video back to its podcast app with HLS in iOS twenty six point four. But this narrative that video is invading podcasting is just ridiculous. It was there from the start.
¶ Apple brings video back with HLS in iOS 26.4
And I know because in 2006, 2007, video podcasts were basically how I got introduced to podcasting. I would find all sorts of independent shows, some of those popular shows like Dignation. But there's this one show called Let's Knit Together. Hi there. I'm Kat.
¶ How I discovered podcasting through video
Let's knit together. It was a husband and wife team filming knitting tutorials on a home camcorder. And I didn't know about knitting. I didn't really care about knitting. But I just found the host, Kat, so charming and genuine that it was compelling to watch.
¶ What video podcasting was always about
And I think this negative reaction to video podcasts ignores the attraction that many creators had to podcasting in the first place, which is I want to be an independent broadcaster. Now for some people, was like, oh, if I could have my own radio show on the Internet, that would be amazing. And that's audio podcasting, and it's beautiful, and it's wonderful. But there's a lot of us that got drawn to podcasting because we wanted to have our own independent TV show on the Internet.
I wanna explain everyone what if they haven't seen the show, what Dignation is.
Yes. We basically do this. We sit on the couch, we drink beers, talk about tech stories, and have fun doing it. And then the internet watches it, which is crazy.
¶ "Podcasts, both spoken word and video"
Justin JacksonAnd that's video podcasting. It's been around for two decades. We're just talking about it now because YouTube has come into the scene and Spotify has come into the scene with video. And now Apple is once again reemphasizing video. But I think the essence is still there. A podcast can be a person with a microphone recording into their computer, but it can also just be a person with a passion and a camera finding an audience through a podcast directory.
So let's recap. Podcasts, both spoken word and video, home movies, music videos and a whole lot more. It's an amazing iPod.