Podcast guest: what video on Apple Podcasts means for speakers

If you want to become a podcast guest, you should now expect to be seen as well as heard: on 5 August 2026 the podcast platform Acast opened video on Apple Podcasts to all of its creators, with no waiting list or invitation. Shows that added video during the test phase saw roughly 25 per cent more weekly sessions on Apple Podcasts after an estimated four months, according to Acast's announcement. For speakers, this means that a guest episode more often shows a picture of you, which organisers searching for speakers will link to your name. If you appear on podcasts as an expert, you should prepare picture and opening as you would for a short talk.

Becoming a podcast guest: what Acast changed on 5 August 2026

In a post of 5 August 2026, Acast announced that every creator on the platform can publish video to Apple Podcasts. Valerie Reimer, who is responsible for business development and strategic partnerships at Acast, puts it like this: "From today, any creator on Acast can publish video to Apple Podcasts." Creators in the Acast network unlock video through their partner manager, and everyone else uses a new subscription plan called Video plan. It covers uploading and distributing video to Apple Podcasts, automatic extraction of the audio track and the option to replace existing audio episodes with video versions.

The figure behind the news comes from the provider itself. By its own account, Acast has been testing video on Apple Podcasts for several months with a selected group of shows, and those shows saw roughly 25 per cent more weekly sessions after an estimated four months. A session here means that someone listens to or watches the show. The text does not say how many shows took part. Because the company sells the video plan itself, the figure is an indication from the provider that does not necessarily apply to every show. In May, according to Acast, the first integrated video campaigns ran on Apple Podcasts with State Farm and T-Mobile. Audio and video were booked in a single purchase.

The trade site Sounds Profitable picked up the news on 7 August 2026 and quoted Reimer saying that video is an option, and that a creator who decides against it is making a legitimate editorial judgement. The host decides. Whether the episode appears on camera is up to him or her, and a conversation without a picture remains available to listen to on Apple Podcasts.

What a podcast guest is and why the picture now matters for speakers

A podcast guest is an expert whom the hosts of a show invite onto an episode to talk about a specialist topic. For speakers, this is an appearance in front of an audience that has chosen the topic deliberately, and it is one of the few appearances you can get without travel and without a programme committee. We compared how this stage stacks up against a conference stage in the article Podcast guest or conference stage.

With video, what remains of the episode changes. The picture leaves an impression. An audio-only episode shows your voice and your arguments, while an episode with picture also shows your manner and your room, plus the way you listen. When someone later looks for you on a conference page or in a programme proposal, they find this episode more often as evidence of how you perform.

A worked example: what a 25 per cent increase could mean for guest episodes

The following calculation is an example with assumptions and not a forecast. It is quickly done. Suppose you appear as a guest on four shows a year, and each show has 800 weekly sessions. If each of these shows grew by the roughly 25 per cent that Acast names thanks to video, each show would gain 200 sessions a week, which makes 800 across four shows. For comparison, a specialist talk in a room of 150 people reaches that many in a single slot, but only once, while a podcast episode stays available for months.

For your planning, the main conclusion is that the number of listeners says little about the benefit. What matters is whether the people who buy your service are in the audience. A show with 300 sessions whose audience is made up of procurement heads in your sector is worth more to you than one with 3,000 sessions and a mixed audience.

How to prepare as a podcast guest for an episode with video

There are five steps. You can do the preparation in them, and it takes you about an hour before the recording.

1. Ask about the format in advance: clarify with the host whether the episode will be released as video, whether you appear in a video call or in a studio, and whether clips for social networks are planned.
2. Set up camera and room: place the camera at eye level, make sure the light comes from the front and choose a quiet background. A shelf with your specialist books is unobtrusive, while a window behind you leaves your face in shadow.
3. Plan your opening: the first sentence gives your name, your topic and who it matters for, followed by a case from your work with a number. How to write a bio in a few sentences is explained in What a speaker bio needs to do.
4. Send the host material in advance: a short bio, a photo and the link to your page, so that the description and links of the episode are correct.
5. Use the episode afterwards: share it with a clip in which you answer one concrete question, and build a post from the conversation, as the article Turning a conference talk into content describes for talks.

Asking to be a podcast guest: which shows fit your topic

If you want to become a podcast guest, you write to the host directly, and the message stays short. It needs only three parts: who you are and which problem you solve, which episode of the show you have listened to, and what its audience would take away from a conversation with you. The quickest way to find a show is to search Apple Podcasts for your specialist term, look at the guest episodes of recent months and check whether the audience comes from your target group. Whether a show uses video is something you ask in the first conversation, and a host who switches video on has already decided to publish picture material of you.

A simple plan for the next quarter looks like this: you choose five shows, write to each with its own proposal for a conversation and expect an answer from one or two of them. That rate is an assumption and not a measured value. Conferences work in a similar way, and the article How many submissions it takes to get accepted works out how many submissions an acceptance needs, using our own figures.