Video episodes of Hey Jonas!, Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb, Pro Football Talk Live with Mike Florio and Solved with Mark Manson can now be watched in Amazon Music in the UK. Amazon switched on video podcasts for British listeners on 16 September, on every subscription tier, on both iOS and Android.
The feature had been available only in the United States since May. It now also reaches customers in Canada, Mexico, Brazil and Japan.
Which shows appear depends on the hosting companies Amazon has connected, and Acast and Audioboom, where much of British independent podcasting lives, are not among them.
Offline video on every tier
In its announcement, Amazon Music says episodes can be downloaded for offline viewing and that listeners can switch between the video and audio versions of the same episode. Offline video on every tier is the distinctive part: YouTube reserves offline playback for Premium subscribers.
The publishers named are iHeartMedia, SiriusXM, Spotify, NBC Sports and Headgum. Shea Simpson, Amazon Music’s head of spoken word, said industry data confirmed what customers had been saying, that “they want the flexibility to watch their favourite podcasts”.
There is an advertising product attached. Amazon says creators can dynamically insert video advertising while keeping existing brand sponsorships and baked-in reads, and that publishers and creators retain full control over their hosting, their ad inventory and their audience targeting. We think that last phrase is a direct pitch against the platforms that have taken more of that control away from shows this year.
Why Acast and Audioboom shows are missing
Three hosting companies are connected at launch: ART19, which Amazon owns, Triton Digital’s Omny Studio, and Flightcast. Amazon says SiriusXM’s hosting stack, including AdsWizz and Simplecast, along with Megaphone and Libsyn, will follow in the coming months.
Acast and Audioboom appear in neither list. A very large share of British independent podcasting is hosted and sold through those two, so the shows a UK listener is most likely to look for are, for now, the least likely to turn up as video in Amazon Music.
The broadcasters sit outside it too. BBC output runs through BBC Sounds, and Global and Bauer both push listeners towards their own apps, so none of them has an obvious incentive to be first onto another platform’s video shelf.
In the short term, then, the video podcasts a British listener finds there are overwhelmingly American, built for an American audience, and mostly sports, celebrity and self-help. Amazon has not said when, or whether, UK hosting companies will be added.
Starting behind YouTube and Spotify
Edison Research at SSRS found in July that YouTube had overtaken Spotify as the most-used podcast service among UK weekly listeners aged 15 and over, on 29% against 28%, with BBC Sounds on 15%. The same study found 72% of UK weekly podcast consumers now watch video podcasts, up from 58% in 2023, while 87% still listen to audio-only shows.
Amazon Music does not feature near the top of that table. We think it starts from a long way back on podcasts, and a catalogue of American video shows will not by itself move a British listener off YouTube.
British podcast advertising, the market Amazon’s video ads are pitched at, is in good health. Sounds Profitable and Sound Insights found in May that 43% of British adults listen to ad-supported podcasts monthly, and that 79% of those listeners recalled hearing a podcast ad in the past week.
Amazon closed the Wondery app this year
Amazon announced in March that it was shutting the Wondery app and the Wondery+ subscription, and both were gone by July. Wondery’s narrative programming moved under Audible, and around a hundred jobs went with the reorganisation.
So within six months Amazon has closed its dedicated podcast app and put podcast video into its music app, while the narrative catalogue sits inside a subscription most people think of as an audiobook service. Our guide to how an Audible membership works sets out where those shows ended up.
How to watch, and what UK podcasters can do
If you already pay for Amazon Music in any form, the video episodes are live now at no extra cost, and the offline download is handy on a commute where YouTube would want a Premium subscription. New to all this? Our complete guide to listening to podcasts explains how the same show reaches you through half a dozen different apps.
If you make a podcast in Britain, ask your hosting company whether it is on the coming-soon list. Shows on Libsyn or Megaphone have a date of sorts.
Shows on Acast or Audioboom have no answer yet, which is worth knowing before you budget for filming.
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