Video vs audio podcasts: different jobs, same show

Most companies starting a podcast ask the same question first: video or audio? The video podcast vs audio podcast debate assumes you have to pick. Your audience already uses both.

In the UK, Ofcom found 39% of podcast listeners prefer audio-only, and another 26% let the video play in the background. Yet YouTube has more than a billion monthly podcast users, and that's where many people find new shows.

For a business podcast, the two formats do different jobs. Audio is how most people will listen to your show. Video is how many new people will find it. Here's what each format does, when audio-only is the better call, and how to decide.

Audio vs video podcast is no longer an either/or

The platforms have stopped treating the two as separate products. Apple added video to Apple Podcasts in February 2026, with a switch that lets people move between watching and listening in the same episode. Spotify has signed a deal to put its video podcasts on Netflix.

Audiences have moved the same way. Edison Research's Podcast Consumer 2026 study found 82% of weekly US podcast consumers watch video podcasts and 78% listen to audio-only ones. The figures add up to well over 100% because most people do both. In 2023 the split was 73% video and 89% audio.

What an audio podcast does

Audio is where most of the listening happens. Ofcom's 2026 research found 39% of UK podcast listeners prefer audio-only, against 27% who prefer video. In the US, a Cumulus Media and Signal Hill Insights survey found 58% of people using YouTube for podcasts listen with the video minimised or off.

Podcasts fill the time when people's eyes are busy, on the commute or at the gym. Deloitte makes the same split: audio suits multitasking, and video asks for attention.

Audio is also simpler to make. There's no set or lighting, and guests who'd stiffen on camera often talk freely into a microphone. That makes it possible to publish often. Morgan Stanley's Thoughts on the Market runs about five minutes, goes out every weekday and has passed 1,400 episodes. A daily market note works because it's quick to record and quick to hear.

The Foreseeable podcast, which Click2View made for Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, was audio-only. Episodes ran 20 to 30 minutes, guests included diplomat Kishore Mahbubani and Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas Friedman, and the series passed 20 episodes. Listeners came for what the guests had to say.

Senior executives do make time for podcasts, and they mostly listen on audio apps rather than YouTube.

What a video podcast adds

Video is how many new people find a show. YouTube says more than a billion people a month watch podcasts there, and episodes surface in feeds and recommendations for people who weren't looking for them. A short clip on LinkedIn reaches people who'd never search a podcast app for your topic.

Video also earns closer attention. In Deloitte's research, 44% of US video podcast viewers never multitask while watching, against 29% of audio listeners. Viewers see faces, reactions and the room, which Deloitte links to trust in the host.

In Indonesia, video is already the default. The country has the highest weekly podcast listening in the world, at 42.6% against a global average of about 22%, according to Deloitte. A 2025 Populix survey of Indonesian Gen Z and millennials found they prefer video podcasts. The share listening to audio alone had more than halved since 2023, and two in three video podcast viewers watch whole episodes.

Endgame, the Indonesian podcast hosted by former trade minister Gita Wirjawan, is made for both. The same long conversations go out on YouTube and the audio apps. Its YouTube channel has more than 1.25 million subscribers, and the show has hosted more than 200 guests.

For corporate shows, the payoff is usually the clips. When Click2View filmed two episodes of Visa's In Conversation executive series, each produced a full-length episode and a set of short LinkedIn videos. Our director coached the speakers during the shoot so they stayed relaxed and to the point. We sent transcripts to Visa with the first cuts, so the team could pick the strongest moments for clips faster. It's easier still when you plan clip-worthy moments before the cameras roll.

Video can feed audio, too

Podcast content repurposing usually means cutting an episode into clips. It runs the other way as well. For Workday's HR and inclusivity panel in Singapore, Click2View filmed the discussion on two cameras and recorded short interviews with each speaker. From that one shoot came a full panel video, a highlights reel, eight social cuts, a trend report and a podcast.

The podcast was built from the panel audio and the interviews, with a narrator introducing the subject and linking speakers and topics. That narrator is what made it work as a listen in its own right. A filmed conversation often needs that kind of help to work as audio.

If you film, write and edit for the ear as well. Avoid "as you can see" and references to slides, and have the host describe anything on screen that matters. The audio has to hold up for listeners who never see the video, and many won't.

When audio-only is the right call

Video isn't always worth the cost. An audio podcast is often the better choice in these cases:

• You publish often. Daily or weekly shows like Thoughts on the Market depend on keeping each episode simple, and a camera adds time to every one.
• Your guests are more candid without a camera. Some senior leaders and many technical experts talk more freely into a microphone.
• The show is for employees. People often listen to internal podcasts on the commute, and few will watch a video on a crowded train.
• The show is scripted or narrative. When sound design and storytelling carry it, pictures add cost without adding much.
• The budget is tight. Money spent on a set is money not spent on better guests, research or editing. A well-made audio show beats a badly lit video one.

None of this is permanent. You can add video later, once the show has found its audience and you know which moments are worth clipping.

Video podcast vs audio podcast: how to decide

Five questions settle it for most business podcasts.

1. Where does your audience find new content? If it's LinkedIn and YouTube, you need video to be found. If they already use podcast apps, audio can carry the show.
2. Will you use the clips? Video pays for itself through clips. If no one will cut, post and promote them, it's mostly an expense.
3. How often will you publish? The more often you publish, the stronger the case for audio, or for filming only selected episodes.
4. Are your speakers comfortable on camera? Coaching helps, but a guest who's tense on camera gives a weaker conversation in both formats.
5. Can the budget cover video and good audio? If it only stretches to one done well, choose audio.

You don't need one rule for every episode. Filming the episodes with the strongest guests and publishing the rest as audio is a sensible middle ground. Others cover both every time: Goldman Sachs puts its Exchanges podcast on YouTube as well as Spotify and Apple.

None of this matters much if the show has nothing to say. A clear premise and well-chosen topics carry a podcast in either format.

Whichever format you choose, make the audio good enough to stand on its own. It's the version most of your audience will hear.

Click2View makes podcasts for B2B brands across Asia, in audio, video or both. If you're deciding on a format for a new show, talk to us.