The Pocket Casts design and development team has been working on an Apple TV version for months. They’ve done an excellent job with this release. The app is slick and I’m so happy that the team is finally ready to share it.

I wrote the public facing documentation for this release. If you notice anything is amiss, have questions, comments, or what have you, please reach out to support.

In short, it’s Pocket Casts on the Apple TV. It connects with your account to keep your podcasts, playlists, playback position, and more in sync with Pocket Casts on all of your other devices. It’s great for throwing on an episode while you clean the house, play a board game with the kids, or just about any other scenario.

And while it’s a great audio podcast player, it really shines with video episodes. Here are some podcasts that publish video episodes that I’ve been watching lately:

• Retro Game Corps on Odysee
• IGN.com – Daily Fix
• Daily Tech News Show
• The Culinary Institute of America
• TechHut on Odysee

I’m sure there are many more that I’m missing. If you have any recommendations of video podcasts that publish using an open RSS feed, I’d love to hear about them.

There are some features that are missing in this initial launch compared to Pocket Casts on other platforms. The one I’m hoping to see added in the future is Files support. I frequently add video files to Pocket Casts using this feature and while I can AirPlay from the mobile app, it would be clutch if I could play them right from within the app on tvOS.

Chapters is another feature that has become an important part of my podcast app experience and is missing in this first release. But I’m hopeful that additional features like this will come in time now that the core feature set is out the door.

I think there’s a bright future ahead for podcasting and I love that I get to be a part of it through documentation and support for Pocket Casts. The team has been shipping some excellent features recently — highlighted transcripts, the tasteful Liquid Glass design refresh, and Dynamic Type support to name a few. Pocket Casts is better than it’s ever been and improving with every release.

Speaking more broadly about the podcasting ecosystem, though, helping to build and maintain that is what keeps me excited about work. Podcasting is a free, open distribution mechanism for media that anyone can utilize.

You don’t have to rely on a single vendor to host and distribute your show. You can pick from a myriad of dedicated podcast hosting companies or host it yourself. As long as you can serve an RSS feed and a media file, you can publish a podcast.

And your listeners aren’t forced to obtain your show from a specific vendor either. They can use Pocket Casts, Castro, Overcast, or choose from hundreds of other clients.

Podcasters get a more direct relationship with their audience and so many people get to build their livelihoods creating software, building hosting companies, and more. It’s a beautiful thing.

From the Pocket Casts weblog:

With version 8.0 of the mobile apps and 6.0 of the web and desktop apps, Pocket Casts introduces Playlists, a flexible and personal way to organize your listening experience. Playlists let you curate, combine, and manage episodes across your favorite podcasts, helping you build exactly the listening flow you want.

The Filters feature remains, but has been rebranded as Smart Playlists. The interface is a bit refined, but all the features from Filters is still available.

What’s new is the ability to curate lists of episodes, which you can add to manually. You can use it to save individual episodes for an upcoming roadtrip, collect episodes that cover the same topic, or whatever you can think of.

This has been our most requested feature for the entirety of Pocket Casts’ time at Automattic. I’m so proud of the team for all the work they’ve put into this.

➝ Source: blog.pocketcasts.com

I was pretty excited when our team started work on this and am pleased to see that the response has been so overwhelmingly positive.

We care a lot about podcasting and want its future to remain free, open, and available to everyone.

➝ Source: blog.pocketcasts.com

Shawn Blanc:

I know, I know. It’s an impossible choice. I’d be so torn between several: camera, notes, music, messages, tasks…

And, as nerdy as it sounds, I think I’d pick the app Things. (The to-do list manager.)

It feels like cheating to choose a web browser, as Shawn notes, so I think I’d go with Pocket Casts. I spend too much time listening to podcasts while I’m mowing the lawn, doing dishes, driving, and more.

➝ Source: shawnblanc.net

Eli Budelli, Head of Apps at Automattic:

As part of Automattic, Pocket Casts will continue to provide you with the features needed to enjoy your favorite podcasts (or find something new). We will explore building deep integrations with WordPress.com and Pocket Casts, making it easier to distribute and listen to podcasts. We’re thrilled that we can continue to give our users a multitude of ways to tell and engage with stories that matter.

Co-founders Russell Ivanovic and Philip Simpson will continue to lead Pocket Casts as part of Automattic.

I’m very high on the future of podcasting. And I’m incredibly excited to see Automattic becoming a bigger part of that.

➝ Source: wordpress.com

From Shifty Jelly’s weblog:

We’ve had a lot of companies in the past contact us about acquiring us and or Pocket Casts and we’ve always had one simple answer for them: thanks, but no thanks. In talking to each of them it was obvious that they didn’t have the best interests of our customers or us at heart and as much as cashing out and walking off into the sunset is a nice ideal, it’s a crummy outcome for all of you and in turn for us. You see we care so damn deeply about what we’ve built and our relationship with each and every one of you that we know deep down inside that would just eat away at us. That’s why when a combined group comprised of WNYC, NPR, WBEZ and This American Life approached us with the goal of partnering for the good of the entire podcast industry, we knew that this opportunity was something else entirely.

This reminds me a bit of when Tweetie was acquired by Twitter. And we all know how that turned out. If I was a Pocket Casts user, I’d probably start looking for a new podcast client.