What Is a Podcast RSS Feed and Why Does It Matter?
11 March 2026
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Your RSS feed is what makes your podcast portable, distributable, and genuinely yours. Here’s how it works — and why it matters more than most beginners realise.
The question most corporate marketing teams are asking about podcasting in 2026 is not whether to do it. It’s whether to do audio, video, or both — and what the difference actually means for a brand with limited time, a real budget, and an audience to serve.
The answer is more interesting than either camp would have you believe. Audio and video podcasting are converging rapidly, and the most important development this year underlines exactly that: Apple just announced a transformed video podcast experience coming to Apple Podcasts soon, using the same HLS streaming technology that powers its video platforms. For the first time, a listener can switch seamlessly between watching and listening to the same episode in the same app. Audio and video are no longer separate formats on the world’s most established podcast platform. They’re one.
This changes something fundamental for brands thinking about podcast production. The choice is no longer audio versus video. It’s about understanding what each format achieves, where they overlap, and which combination makes sense for your specific audience, story, and goals.
Before we talk about video, it’s worth being clear about what audio does that video cannot — because it’s genuinely distinctive and it matters for how you plan your content.
Audio travels. It goes where screens cannot follow. A well-produced podcast episode accompanies your audience through a morning commute, a gym session, a long drive, a school run. That time is unavailable to video content entirely. And crucially, it’s sustained, voluntary, undivided attention — the kind that builds real familiarity and trust with a brand voice over time.
The numbers behind podcast listening behaviour reflect this. Completion rates for podcast audio are significantly higher than for video content on social platforms, where the scroll is always one swipe away. A listener who finishes your episode is not the same as a viewer who watched 40% of your video before switching tabs. The depth of engagement is categorically different.
For brands whose core content is knowledge-based — professional services, healthcare, financial services, education — audio creates a specific kind of intimacy. The voice of an expert speaking directly into someone’s earphones, without visual distraction, is a format that has been building trust between people for as long as radio has existed. A branded podcast inherits that relationship.
“A listener who finishes your episode is not the same as a viewer who watched 40% of your video before switching tabs. The depth of engagement is categorically different.”
For a long time, video podcasting meant uploading a recording of two people talking in front of a camera to YouTube and calling it a show. The production bar was low, the viewing experience was functional at best, and brands serious about visual quality tended to treat it as an afterthought.
That era is ending. The convergence happening right now across YouTube, Spotify, and now Apple Podcasts is producing something genuinely different: a format where video and audio are produced together, distributed together, and consumed interchangeably based on where the audience happens to be and what they’re doing.
Apple’s announcement is significant precisely because of the seamless switching capability. A listener on their morning run can hear your episode in audio mode. The same person, settling in at their desk during lunch, can switch to watching the video version — same feed, same episode, no separate upload required. For brands, this means that investing in quality video podcast production now serves both audiences simultaneously. You are not choosing between the commuter and the YouTube viewer. You are reaching both.
Spotify reported that video podcast consumption surged 90% after launching its Partner Program in early 2025. YouTube has more than one billion monthly podcast viewers. The audience for video podcasting is not emerging — it’s already here and growing fast.
For many South African brands entering podcasting for the first time, audio-first production remains the right starting point — not because video doesn’t matter, but because the foundations of a great podcast are the same regardless of format.
Strategy, structure, editorial voice, consistent scheduling, and a host who is comfortable and compelling — these are what make a podcast worth coming back to. None of them are visual. A brand that skips them in the rush to produce a video show ends up with something that looks fine and says nothing.
Audio-first production also allows a brand to find its voice and rhythm without the added complexity of a full video production workflow. Once the show has a clear identity and an audience that trusts it, adding a video layer — whether that’s a simple locked-off camera or a fully produced visual experience — is straightforward. The reverse is much harder: a well-produced video podcast without the editorial substance underneath it is expensive wallpaper.
There are contexts where launching with video from the start is the smarter move, and brands should know what they are.
If your audience is primarily under 40 and already consuming video podcast content on YouTube or Spotify, meeting them where they are is not optional — it’s table stakes. The research is clear that younger audiences have normalised watching podcasts as much as listening to them, and that preference is only moving in one direction.
If your brand’s story has a strong visual dimension — manufacturing, architecture, food, hospitality, live events, performance — audio alone is leaving half the story behind. The visual environment of your world is part of what makes your brand compelling, and a format that captures it serves your audience better.
If you’re a media or entertainment company producing original content, video podcasting opens the door to monetisation structures and audience reach that audio-only simply cannot access — particularly the YouTube advertising ecosystem and now, from spring 2026, Apple’s newly expanded video ad network.
The convergence of audio and video podcasting does not make production easier — it raises the planning requirements before a single episode is recorded. A show that will eventually live in both formats needs to be designed for both from the outset: the hosting style, the set or recording environment, the editorial format, the episode length, and the visual identity all need to be considered together.
This is exactly the kind of strategic production planning that separates a show built to last from one that runs out of steam after six episodes. At Baird Media, we produce both audio and video podcast content — the format is determined by what the client’s audience needs and what the brand’s story demands, not by what’s cheapest or quickest to deliver. Our podcast production services are built to handle either format, or both, depending on where the conversation starts.
The right answer for your brand might be audio-first with a clear path to video. It might be full audio-video production from episode one. It might be audio drama or documentary that doesn’t need a camera at all. What it shouldn’t be is a decision made without a clear understanding of your audience, your goals, and what you’re willing to invest in doing properly.
The South African podcast market is still early enough that brands entering with quality production can build genuine category authority. That window exists in both audio and video. The platforms are investing heavily — Apple’s move this year is the clearest signal yet that the major players consider video podcasting a permanent, growing part of the medium, not a trend to be monitored.
What that means practically is that the production decisions you make in the next six to twelve months will shape your brand’s audio and visual presence in this space for years. The brands that move with intention — clear format, clear strategy, professional production — will be the ones their audiences associate with quality when the field gets more crowded.
Audio, video, or both — the format is a production decision, not a strategic one. The strategy comes first. And the sooner that conversation starts, the more options you have.
Find out how a branded podcast fits your content strategy — and whether audio, video, or both is the right move for your brand.
Your voice is your brand. Your podcast should sound like it.
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