YouTube Plans To Establish a Podcast Homepage

YouTube is preparing for its future with podcast content. After hiring Kai Chuk as its podcast executive and encouraging famous podcasters to make videos by offering up to $300,000, the video-sharing platform is now planning to put a respective podcast homepage on its platform. It was divulged by Podnews after acquiring an 84-page YouTube presentation for podcast publishers that details the plan.

The presentation shows three slides tagged as “Looking Ahead” and provides insight into most of the plans. In the first slide, YouTube is said to be planning to ingest podcast RSS feeds directly “to make uploading to YouTube easier and more simple.” Moreover, the document shows the plan to place a new podcast homepage at youtube.com/podcasts, though the URL isn’t still functioning. In addition, the slide shows a mockup of the podcast entries on the platform once it is available. From the layout presented, it seems the podcasts will come in the exact conventional square thumbnails.

In the second slide, YouTube presented its plan to use the homepage in bumping up its advertising business by proposing Google-sold and partner-sold audio ads that will “tap into audiences who are listening to music, podcast, or other audio content on YouTube.” The slide shared by Podnews doesn’t include the details about the share of revenue to the podcast publishers, but given the standard practice at YouTube, it is likely to happen.

Moreover, one of the slides says that YouTube will provide analytics with new metrics specifically designed for audio-first creators. It also shows the plan to integrate the YouTube data into industry-standard podcast measurement platforms. Companies like Nielsen, Podtrac, and Chartable are listed on the slide, but what YouTube is really planning to do with the said companies is not mentioned.

YouTube, on the other hand, still hasn’t commented on the information uncovered by Podnews.