Podcasting may have started as an audio medium, but it is fast becoming a powerful video format with surging viewership on YouTube, Spotify and other digital platforms.
A session at TellyCast’s Digital Content Forum 2025 today examined the financial and creative models around vodcasting, as well as how it might influence the future of TV. Engine Pop’s Athena Witter moderated the discussion with Flight Story’s Jason Fisher, Cold Glass Productions’ Ben Kerr and Platform Media’s Darby Dorras.
Flight Story has evolved from its beginnings with the Diary of a CEO podcast into a fully-fledged production house. Fisher noted that 30% of viewers of that show were watching on TVs even a few years ago, which pointed the way forward.
“We think of ourselves less so much as a podcast but a show, or a traditional brand that allows us to build a world and an ecosystem around it,” he said. “It’s really changing how we approach everything, from distribution all the way through to the IPs themselves.”
Platform Media knows something about IPs, having produced the hugely-successful The Traitors: Uncloaked, which is far more than just another companion format to a big TV hit.
“Initially, there was a lot of talk about: is this a TV show, is it a visualised podcast? Our approach was we don’t really care, we just want to build something that there was an audience need for,” said Dorras.
Cold Glass Productions has also had a big hit with Dish, the food-themed show that it makes with retail brand Waitrose.
“We sell companionship. What audiences are looking for, now more than ever, is a group of mates. What radio used to do really well was fell like your mates in your room talking to you.. we’re building a gang of likeminded people that you want to make part of your life,” said Kerr.
“We didn’t call it a podcast or a vodcast or a video. Our aim was just to be the most hospitable show on the planet,” he continued. “We want to be as inclusive as possible. I think that’s what audiences are looking for now: stuff that brings people together.”
If you watch Dish on different platforms, you’ll get a slightly different show. For example, on Spotify the emphasis is more on chat with hosts Nick Grimshaw and Angela Hartnett. However, on YouTube, where the show has a global audience, it’s more about getting straight into the food elements. Two edits to suit the two platforms.
Dorras approved. “It’s about having a different approach entirely led by which platform you’re putting that content on,” he said. Fisher also agreed. “We spent a lot of time figurin gout how to distribute smartly to other platforms… You can’t just put the same thing on YouTube that you put elsewhere, because the audience is completely different,” he said.
The conversation turned to AI – Flight Story is investigating tools to quickly dub and translate its shows for the 80% of the world that doesn’t speak English – and the positive role that brands can play in this new world of vodcasting.
“The old TV world was dominated by putting out shows where you could monetise impacts around it. But with video formats, it’s harder and harder to make ads cut through at the beginning and end,” said Kerr. “You’re going to have to find natural ways to bring the brands and make them part of the content. No one wants the terrible host-read [ad]!”
Kerr declined to predict the next big vodcast genre, preferring to talk about the next big demographic for these shows. “It’s the over-35s,” he said. “Half of the Dish audience that are watching on YouTube are over 35. The older audiences are watching loads of YouTube… It’s time for mainstream celebrities to flip and say: how can they offer something with authority to that audience?”
Kerr also brought the house down with his final thoughts on the next big shift for vodcasts. “It is thinking within a franchise model,” he said. “If I had money right now, I’d bet on dogs. Dog formats are the next big thing!”
