Choosing the right video podcast platforms in 2026 just got complicated—YouTube, Spotify, and Apple all now support video, and the platform you pick determines your revenue ceiling. YouTube pays the most and reaches the most people. Spotify captures the mobile podcast habit. Apple owns the premium subscriber.

Every major podcast platform now supports video. YouTube’s had it for years. Spotify expanded video podcasting globally in 2025. And Apple Podcasts quietly added native HLS video support in February 2026, complete with offline video downloads. The trifecta is complete.

Which means the question isn’t “should I do a video podcast?” anymore. It’s “where should I publish it first — and does the answer change how much I get paid?”

Yes. Significantly.

Quick Verdict

	YouTube	Spotify	Apple Podcasts
Audience size	#1 by listener count since 2024	#2, strong on mobile	#3, loyal podcast-native audience
Video support	Full (native)	Full (rolled out globally)	Native HLS (Feb 2026), offline download
Ad revenue	AdSense + mid-rolls + pre-rolls	Spotify Audience Network (lower CPMs)	Apple Podcasts Subscriptions (listener-paid)
Other monetization	Shopping affiliate, Super Thanks, memberships, brand deals	Spotify Audience Network only	Paid subscriptions per show
Discovery	Algorithm-driven, search-heavy	Curated playlists, algorithm	Minimal, editorial features only
RSS ingest	Yes (via YouTube Podcasts)	Yes	Yes
Best for	Reach + ad revenue stacking	Mobile-first podcast listeners	Dedicated podcast audience, premium subs

Bottom line: YouTube pays the most and reaches the most people. Spotify captures the mobile podcast habit. Apple owns the premium subscriber. Most video podcasters should publish to all three but treat YouTube as the primary revenue engine.

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Why This Decision Matters More in 2026

A year ago, picking a video podcast platform was simple. YouTube or nothing. Spotify had video but it was limited to select markets and invite-only creators. Apple Podcasts was audio-only.

Now all three are competing for video podcast content, and the newsletter platforms are jumping in too. beehiiv launched podcast hosting on March 29 with RSS distribution to all major directories. Substack shipped Recording Studio two weeks earlier, but locked everything to Substack’s own player with no external distribution. Two very different approaches to the same land grab.

The platform you treat as primary shapes your monetization ceiling. Not in a theoretical “could matter someday” sense. In a “this determines whether you earn $2 per thousand views or $18” sense.

YouTube: The Revenue King (and It’s Not Close)

YouTube became the number one podcast platform by listener count in 2024. That stat surprised the audio-first podcast world, but it shouldn’t have. People were already watching long-form conversations on YouTube. Calling them “podcasts” just gave the behavior a label.

Here’s what YouTube gives you that no other podcast platform matches: stacked monetization.

• AdSense revenue from pre-rolls, mid-rolls, and post-rolls on every episode
• YouTube Shopping affiliate links pinned below episodes (and now available at just 500 subscribers)
• Super Thanks and Super Chat for live episode recordings
• Channel memberships for exclusive content tiers
• Brand deals through YouTube’s creator partnerships program or negotiated directly

No other platform lets you layer all five. A single video podcast episode on YouTube can earn AdSense revenue, drive affiliate commissions, collect viewer tips, and serve as the demo reel that lands a $5,000 sponsorship. Spotify and Apple Podcasts offer one revenue stream each. YouTube offers five.

The CPMs tell the story. YouTube podcast content in the US typically generates $7-18 per thousand views depending on niche. Some business and finance podcasts hit $25+. That’s AdSense alone, before sponsorships, before affiliate, before memberships.

Where YouTube Falls Short

Discovery is algorithm-dependent. Your podcast episode competes with every other video on the platform: Mr. Beast clips, music videos, cooking tutorials, everything. YouTube doesn’t have a dedicated podcast tab in most markets (it’s tested and retracted this multiple times). Your show lives in the general feed, and it needs thumbnails, titles, and retention curves that compete with pure entertainment content.

That changes how you produce. A YouTube podcast isn’t just “record a conversation and upload.” The thumbnail has to pop. The title needs a hook. The first 30 seconds determine whether the algorithm pushes or buries you. I’ve seen excellent podcast conversations get 200 views because the thumbnail looked like a Zoom screenshot.

The other problem: YouTube audiences don’t behave like podcast audiences. They skip around. They watch at 1.5x. They leave after 8 minutes of a 90-minute episode. Average view duration on long-form podcast content is brutal compared to dedicated podcast apps where people put in earbuds and listen to the whole thing during a commute.

You get the biggest audience on YouTube. You don’t always get the most engaged one.

Spotify: The Mobile Podcast Habit

Spotify’s video podcast rollout went global through 2025 and into 2026. Most podcast creators can now upload video to Spotify, and listeners can toggle between audio and video within the app. It works the way you’d expect: start listening in the car, switch to watching at home.

The audience behavior on Spotify is different from YouTube in one critical way: people on Spotify are there to listen to podcasts. They searched for a podcast. They subscribed to a show. They’re in the podcast section of the app. The intent is pure. No competing with gaming clips or reaction videos.

That translates to higher completion rates and more consistent listenership. A Spotify podcast subscriber is more likely to listen to every episode than a YouTube subscriber is to watch every upload. The platform trains habitual listening in a way YouTube doesn’t.

Spotify’s Monetization Problem

Here’s the catch. Spotify’s podcast monetization runs through the Spotify Audience Network, and the CPMs are fractional compared to YouTube AdSense.

We’re talking $1-5 CPM for most podcasters on the Audience Network, depending on category and audience size. A podcast that earns $15 per thousand views on YouTube might earn $2-3 per thousand streams on Spotify. Same content. Same audience demographic. Wildly different payouts.

Why? Spotify’s ad infrastructure is built around audio ad insertion, and video ads within the app are still early. YouTube has been optimizing video ad delivery and advertiser targeting for over a decade. Spotify’s ad tech isn’t there yet. The Audience Network is functional, not mature.

Spotify also doesn’t offer the stacked monetization YouTube does. No tipping. No affiliate program built into the platform. No equivalent of Shopping links. Your revenue options are: Audience Network ads, or find your own sponsors and read the ad live. That’s it.

Why Spotify Still Matters

If Spotify pays less, why bother? Two reasons.

Podcast listener behavior. The person who listens to your show on Spotify during their morning run is a different person than the one who watches a clip on YouTube while eating lunch. Spotify listeners are subscribers. They come back. They build a relationship with your show over weeks and months that YouTube’s browse-and-bounce audience often doesn’t. That loyalty is what makes sponsorship reads effective. It’s also what makes a direct call-to-action (“go to mysite.com/offer”) actually convert.

Distribution completeness. A video podcast that only exists on YouTube is a YouTube show. A video podcast on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts is a podcast. The distinction matters for landing sponsors, for legitimacy in the podcast industry, and for reaching the 30-40% of podcast listeners who primarily use Spotify or Apple rather than YouTube.

Apple Podcasts: The Premium Subscriber Play

Apple Podcasts added native HLS video support in February 2026. You can now upload video episodes, and listeners can watch them directly in the Apple Podcasts app, including downloading video for offline viewing. That offline piece matters for commuters and travelers who were previously stuck with audio-only on flights.

Apple’s approach to monetization is fundamentally different from YouTube and Spotify. There’s no ad network. No programmatic ad insertion. Instead, Apple offers Apple Podcasts Subscriptions: listeners pay a monthly fee directly to your show for premium content.

What Apple Podcasts Subscriptions Look Like

You set the price. Typically $2.99-9.99/month. Subscribers get whatever you designate as premium: bonus episodes, ad-free versions, early access, video-only content. Apple takes 30% in the first year, dropping to 15% after a subscriber’s been paying for 12 months.

That 30% cut is steep (Apple being Apple). But the listeners who pay for podcast subscriptions through Apple tend to be high-intent, low-churn. They’re already paying for the Apple ecosystem. Adding $4.99/month for a podcast they love is a rounding error on their App Store bill.

I haven’t seen massive numbers from Apple Podcasts Subscriptions for mid-size shows. The feature works best for established podcasts with a loyal audience that’s already concentrated in Apple’s ecosystem. If your analytics show 40%+ of your listeners are on Apple Podcasts, subscriptions are worth testing. If your audience skews YouTube-heavy, the conversion rate on Apple subs will be low because those listeners aren’t in the app.

Apple’s Discovery Problem

Apple Podcasts has the worst discovery of the three platforms. There’s no algorithmic feed pushing new shows to listeners. The browse section is editorially curated. Great if you get featured, useless if you don’t. Search works, but people search for shows they already know about.

You’re not going to grow your podcast on Apple Podcasts. You’re going to serve your existing Apple listeners there. That’s a meaningful difference.

What About the Newsletter Platforms?

Two newsletter-first platforms now want your podcast too.

beehiiv (launched March 29, 2026) is building podcast hosting with RSS distribution to all three major platforms. Flat monthly fee, no revenue share. The play is consolidation: newsletter, podcast, and subscriber revenue in one dashboard. It’s early access and the editing tools are minimal, but the distribution strategy is correct. Your episodes go everywhere.

Substack Recording Studio (launched March 12, 2026) is the opposite approach. Audio lives in Substack’s player. No RSS. No Apple Podcasts. No Spotify. No YouTube. Your podcast reaches your Substack subscribers and nobody else. For a writer who wants to add voice memos to their newsletter, that’s fine. For anyone building a podcast audience? It’s a non-starter.

If you’re a newsletter creator adding a podcast, beehiiv’s model makes more sense architecturally. But neither platform replaces a proper podcast editing workflow with Riverside or Descript. These are distribution plays, not production tools.

How to Pick Your Primary Platform

“Publish everywhere” is the right distribution strategy. But you still need a primary platform, the one you optimize for, where you check analytics first, where your monetization is concentrated.

Which platform should be your primary?

Here’s how to decide based on what matters most to your show:

1. If ad revenue is your main income: YouTube. The CPM gap is too large to ignore, and the stacked monetization (ads + Shopping + memberships) compounds. No other platform comes close.
2. If you’re building a loyal subscriber base: Spotify or Apple. Podcast-native listeners subscribe, return weekly, and listen to completion at rates YouTube can’t match.
3. If you sell premium/bonus content: Apple Podcasts Subscriptions. The subscription infrastructure is built in, and Apple listeners are conditioned to pay for content.
4. If discoverability is your priority: YouTube. The algorithm can surface your show to people who’ve never heard of you. Spotify and Apple mostly serve existing subscribers.
5. If you’re primarily a newsletter creator: Use beehiiv’s podcast hosting to distribute everywhere via RSS, with YouTube as your video-first platform.

The Hybrid Strategy That Actually Works

After testing this across the last six months, here’s what I’d recommend for most video podcasters:

Record in high quality. 1080p minimum, good audio, decent lighting. This master file feeds everything.

Publish the full video episode to YouTube first. Optimize the thumbnail, write a hook-driven title, add chapters. YouTube is your growth and revenue engine.

Distribute the same episode to Spotify and Apple Podcasts via RSS. Most podcast hosts — Buzzsprout, Transistor, Podbean, and now beehiiv — handle this automatically. The video file goes to Spotify. The audio (plus video on Apple now) goes to Apple Podcasts.

Treat YouTube analytics as your primary dashboard. That’s where the money is and where growth happens fastest. Use Spotify and Apple analytics to understand your dedicated podcast audience, the people who listen every week regardless of what YouTube’s algorithm does.

Don’t make content decisions based on one platform. A YouTube-optimized podcast (clickbait titles, constant jump cuts, short segments) will annoy your Spotify subscribers who want a real conversation. A pure interview show optimized for audio listeners might underperform on YouTube where visual engagement matters. Find the middle. Film a genuine conversation, but give YouTube the hooks it needs.

The Money Math

Let’s make this concrete. A video podcast episode that gets 10,000 views/listens across all platforms:

Platform	Est. plays (60/25/15 split)	Revenue model	Est. earnings
YouTube	6,000 views	AdSense at $12 CPM	$72
Spotify	2,500 streams	Audience Network at $3 CPM	$7.50
Apple	1,500 listens	No programmatic ads	$0 (unless running subs)
Total	10,000		~$80/episode from ads alone

That $72 from YouTube is doing 90% of the ad revenue work. The Spotify earnings barely cover a month of hosting. Apple contributes nothing on the ad side unless you’re running subscriptions.

But here’s the part the revenue-only analysis misses: those 2,500 Spotify listeners and 1,500 Apple listeners are probably your most loyal audience members. They’re the ones who buy your course, join your community, click your sponsorship codes. The per-listen value of a dedicated podcast subscriber is higher than the per-view value of a YouTube browser, even though YouTube’s ad payout is 10x larger.

A video podcast that publishes to YouTube alone reaches the largest audience but loses the dedicated podcast listener behavior that Spotify and Apple capture. You want both.

What I’d Do Starting From Zero

New show, no audience, limited budget. Here’s the stack:

1. Record on Riverside (remote guests) or locally with a decent USB mic and your phone/webcam
2. Edit in Descript. Cut the filler, add chapters, export video and audio
3. Upload video to YouTube with an optimized thumbnail and title
4. Host on Buzzsprout or beehiiv (if you have a newsletter) for RSS distribution to Spotify and Apple
5. Focus growth efforts on YouTube for the first six months. That’s where the algorithm can find you new listeners
6. Once you hit consistent weekly uploads, enable YouTube AdSense and start layering in Shopping affiliate links
7. At 1,000+ subscribers, evaluate Apple Podcasts Subscriptions for bonus content

The priority order is YouTube first, Spotify second (it’ll grow passively through RSS), Apple third. Don’t spread your production effort trying to optimize for all three simultaneously. Optimize for YouTube, distribute to the rest.

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Which Video Podcast Platform Wins in 2026?

YouTube pays the most, full stop. For listener loyalty, Spotify’s ahead. Apple has premium subscriptions locked down. No single platform covers everything.

The right answer for most creators in 2026 is the boring one: publish everywhere, optimize for YouTube, and let RSS handle the rest. The platforms want you to pick sides. You don’t have to. Your podcast host distributes to all of them for the same monthly fee.

But if forced to pick one? YouTube. The audience is bigger, the monetization is deeper, and the algorithm still discovers new shows in a way no other podcast platform does. The CPM advantage alone makes it the obvious primary for anyone who wants podcast revenue, not just podcast listeners.

Just don’t skip Spotify and Apple. The listener who finds you on YouTube browses. The listener who subscribes on Spotify or Apple commits. You need both kinds.

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YouTube listener data reflects Edison Research and Cumulus/Signal Hill findings from 2024. Apple Podcasts native video support launched February 2026. Spotify Audience Network CPMs are estimates based on publicly reported creator earnings and vary by category. beehiiv podcast hosting entered early access March 29, 2026. Substack Recording Studio launched March 12, 2026. All monetization figures are approximations, and your actual earnings depend on niche, audience geography, and content type.