Rumor mill: Users can already find many podcasts on YouTube, but the platform does not officially support them like movies or music. Recent reports suggest this may change, but with no indication of when.

Podnews claims to have received a presentation sent to podcasters by YouTube detailing upcoming features to support podcasts. They seem designed to make podcast searching and monetization easier.

YouTube currently has dedicated sections for movies, music, and game streaming, but not podcasts, despite their prevalence there. The presentation slides list a page dedicated to podcasts at “youtube.com/podcasts”, although that URL doesn’t lead anywhere yet.

From there, YouTube may be planning a way to include podcast RSS feeds directly. One slide is about the growth of audio-only ads from Google to monetize music and podcasts. It says that some time this year there will be ads sold by other companies.

There will also be analytics and statistics focused on audio-only content, so podcasters can get a more accurate picture of their audience. The presentation mentions analytics platforms such as Podtrac, Chartable, and Nielsen.

Last October, Google confirmed that it had hired Kai Chuk to manage podcasts on YouTube. It hasn’t officially said anything on the subject since then.

This post YouTube plans to improve platform support for podcasts

was original published at “https://www.techspot.com/news/93996-youtube-reportedly-planning-increase-support-podcasts.html”