Earlier this year, reports surfaced that YouTube would soon add a dedicated podcast homepage , a sign that the company was taking its investments in audio and the potential ad revenue they could generate more seriously.
YouTube confirmed Monday that the new podcast destination is now available to users in the United States, after the URL was found to be live before any formal announcement.
According to the report, the dedicated podcast page launched sometime last month and is now linked, at least for some users, on YouTube’s Explore page alongside other top destinations like Gaming, Sports, Learning, Fashion, and YouTube. others. However, it did not appear in the side navigation bar of the website.
YouTube told various technology outlets that the URL is not available globally at this time.
“YouTube Podcast Landing Page helps users explore new and popular episodes, shows, podcasters, and recommend podcast content.”
“It is currently only available in the US,” explained YouTube spokesman Paul Pennington.
There have been a number of signs in the past that YouTube is taking podcasts more seriously, particularly after Spotify launched its .
Last year, YouTube hired a podcast executive, Kai Chuk, to lead its efforts in the space and has been to popular podcasters to film their shows, according to reports.
In March, he leaked an 84-page presentation detailing YouTube’s podcast roadmap. In the document, YouTube revealed that it had plans to test the feature by ingesting sources. He also mentioned a new one but the link didn’t work at the time.
The addition of a top-level landing page for podcasts is a pretty significant move for the company.
As different YouTube verticals have grown in importance and popularity, YouTube would highlight these categories by giving them their own homepages on their site and presenting them as a link in their main navigation. In particular, in 2015 and with .
On mobile devices, it also features a prominent YouTube Music link that opens the companion app for the YouTube music service. Presumably, it could do the same for podcasts in the future, if it wanted to capitalize on its ability to drive traffic from its main app to its streaming service.
