Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
Podcasting is no longer just an audio medium. The rise of video podcasts has expanded the industry and unlocked new, younger, video-first audiences – but it has also changed how and where people consume the content.
As more content becomes screen-first, a quiet shift is happening beneath the surface: video podcast consumption is happening more in the home. That shift matters for anyone trying to reach investors, employees, customers, or frontline teams.
The behaviour is straightforward: when people choose video, they stay put.
Video requires a screen, stable attention, and an environment where looking at a screen isn’t inconvenient (or unsafe). That naturally biases consumption toward sofas, desks, kitchen counters, or smart TVs. It can be high-quality engagement, but it’s still stationary.
Audio was built for movement, and that advantage hasn’t gone away.
Two formats, two roles
Video is powerful for storytelling, visibility, leadership presence, and discovery. It shines when your audience is settled and screen-ready.
Audio is powerful for consistency, frequency, and real-world access. It shines when your audience is moving.
The two formats aren’t interchangeable. They serve different behaviours and different environments.
Treating them as equivalent leads to blind spots: investors who never finish webcasts, employees who never see leadership videos, customers who want updates but don’t want more screen time.
Why video doesn’t make it into the commute
Video has several major limitations:
- Requires visual attention; unsafe or impractical while commuting, working, exercising, walking, or multitasking.
- Requires surface area and stability: laptops, tablets, TVs, or phones propped up somewhere.
- Introduces friction: buffering, data use, battery drain, orientation issues.
- Requires more resources: for corporate comms or IR, video adds production burden and extends time-to-publish.
Webinars and webcasts share the same constraints, as the line between those formats and video podcasts is blurrier than it used to be. They give you a fixed time slot and assume your audience is at a desk, uninterrupted, and willing to stare at yet another screen.
That simply isn’t how most investors, employees, or stakeholders operate.
Audio reaches who video misses
Audio is the opposite. Listeners don’t need a screen, a quiet room, or dedicated attention. They can absorb updates on the train, between meetings, at the gym, or during housework.
That mobility is why corporate audio channels routinely outperform email and video in completion rates, especially for internal communications where deskless and frontline workers are hard to reach.
For external communications like investor relations, the same behaviour applies. Investors live on the move. They skim PDFs while traveling, catch up on results between meetings, and rarely have time for long, scripted webcasts.
Short, secure audio briefings fit their day far more naturally. They don’t replace conventional disclosure methods; they extend the message into moments when investors actually listen.
Don’t treat audio and video podcasts as the same channel
If organisations lean too heavily on video, their communications become desk-bound. That makes the message less convenient to access for frontline workers, traveling executives, global teams on variable shifts, and time-poor investors who only have minutes between commitments.
Ignoring audio doesn’t just reduce engagement. It narrows who hears you.
Designing a dual-format strategy: when to use video vs. audio
The strongest communication strategies will use both formats, but they won’t treat them as the same product. Video attracts attention. Audio sustains it. Video performs at home. Audio performs everywhere else.
Since video podcasting costs 77% more per hour of attention than audio-only, audio is the efficient way to earn real attention for corporate teams with fixed budgets.
Use video when:
- You need visual demonstration, personality, or brand aesthetics.
- Viewers are assumed to be at home or at a desk.
- The goal is reach, discovery, or algorithmic growth.
Use audio when:
- You need to reach people who are mobile, distributed, or screen fatigued.
- You need higher completion with lower production burden.
- You need a compliant, secure, access-controlled environment.
- You want to increase frequency of touchpoints between formal updates.
If your organisation wants to reach people beyond the desk without adding production burden or compliance risk, there’s now a far easier path. Check out our guide to see how secure, low-lift corporate podcasting.
