YouTube Top Podcasts lineup: what podcasters can do

The YouTube Top Podcasts lineup is an advertising product, not a program podcasters join. YouTube announced it on March 12, 2026: a US package that lets brands buy ads across top podcasts in five verticals, which are Sports, News, Comedy, True Crime and Society & Culture (YouTube Official Blog, archived). On March 20, Google made the Top Sports Podcast Lineup generally available to all US advertisers, naming New Heights and The Rich Eisen Show among its shows (Google Ads & Commerce Blog). YouTube hasn't published a way to apply or the criteria it uses to pick shows. What you can control is everything that makes a show count as a podcast on YouTube and earn from ads: podcast features in YouTube Studio, the YouTube Partner Program, advertiser-friendly episodes and watch time.

What YouTube announced

Google describes the sports lineup as a way for brands to "align with the YouTube Select podcasters that fans love" (Google Ads & Commerce Blog). That wording tells you how the product works.

How the lineup works

YouTube Select is YouTube's premium ad package. Google's help centre defines YouTube Select Lineups as "reservation products for eligible clients to target among the top 1% of popular channels on YouTube with the most passionate audiences in a given market," and adds that "Lineups include only channels" (Google Ads Help).

Three things follow for podcasters:

1. The unit is the channel. Advertisers buy a set of channels, not individual episodes.
2. It's a top-of-market product. The pool is the most popular channels in a market, so most shows won't be in it.
3. Brands buy it as a reservation. Google Ads reservation campaigns buy impressions "at a fixed rate" on a cost-per-thousand basis (Google Ads Help), so advertisers commit to the package up front.

YouTube's post pitches video podcast ads as stronger than audio. It cites Kantar research, commissioned by Google, which found YouTube video podcast ads outperformed YouTube audio ads by 7.3x on aided brand awareness and 5.8x on ad recall. It also cites an Edison Research survey of US weekly podcast listeners that named YouTube, including YouTube Music, the most frequently used podcast service in Q4 2025: 41.2%, against 20.4% for Spotify and 11.3% for Apple Podcasts (YouTube Official Blog, archived). Those are YouTube's own figures from studies it chose to cite, so read them as a sales pitch. They still show where ad budgets are heading.

Can you get your podcast into a lineup?

Not by applying. We found no application form and no published selection criteria for the podcast lineups. The only public definition is the YouTube Select one above: the most popular channels in a market.

So treat the lineup as a signal, not a goal. Advertisers are paying a premium to reach video podcasts on YouTube. The shows that benefit are the ones YouTube can clearly identify as podcasts, that can run ads and that hold large audiences. Those are also the things that help every podcast on YouTube.

What every podcaster on YouTube can do

1. Mark your show as a podcast in YouTube Studio

YouTube only treats a playlist as a podcast if you give it podcast features. In YouTube Studio, choose Create, then New podcast, then either create one or pick an existing playlist. Add a title, description, visibility setting and square thumbnail, then click Create (YouTube Help).

Eligible podcasts can appear in YouTube Music with background playback, get podcast badges on watch and playlist pages, and can be featured on youtube.com/podcasts. The rules to know:

• The playlist should hold full-length episodes in the order they should be watched.
• Each episode has to be a video. MP3s can't become podcasts on YouTube.
• Content you don't own, or episodes that break copyright policy, can lose podcast features.

2. Keep clips and Shorts out of the podcast playlist

YouTube's help page says not to add podcast features to playlists of seasons or clips (YouTube Help). YouTube's weekly US podcast chart ranks shows by watch time and excludes playlists that contain only clips or Shorts (YouTube Official Blog). Put full episodes in the podcast, and clips in their own playlist.

3. Get into the YouTube Partner Program

Lineup or not, ads only pay you if your channel is in the YouTube Partner Program. See YouTube's eligibility page for the current subscriber and watch-time thresholds and the other requirements, such as 2-Step Verification and an AdSense account. Once you turn on watch page ads, YouTube pays 55% of the net revenue from ads on your public videos (YouTube Help). YouTube hasn't published separate revenue terms for lineup ads.

4. Keep episodes advertiser-friendly

YouTube's advertiser-friendly content guidelines decide which individual videos and Shorts are suitable for ads. A two-hour conversation has more room to wander into sensitive topics than a scripted video, so check each episode against the guidelines before it goes live.

5. Disclose your own sponsors

Host-read sponsorships still belong to you. If an episode includes branded content or a sponsorship, YouTube requires you to tick the paid promotion option in the video details, which adds a disclosure label at the start of the video (YouTube Help).

6. Watch the chart that uses the same signal

YouTube's Weekly Top Podcast Shows chart at charts.youtube.com/podcasts ranks US shows by watch time and updates every Wednesday. It only includes content creators have marked as podcasts (YouTube Official Blog). If you're far from it, grow watch time first.

7. Use clips to send viewers to full episodes

Short clips are how most people find a long show. Cut the strongest moments into vertical Shorts and link them to the full episode. Exemplary AI's podcast clip generator finds clip-worthy moments in an episode, reframes them to 9:16 and adds captions, so one episode can supply several Shorts. Our guide to podcast clips for TikTok and Instagram covers length, hooks and captions, and how to repurpose podcast content covers the other formats one episode can feed.

What this means if you're not a top-1% show

Very little changes day to day. You still earn ad revenue through the YouTube Partner Program, and your sponsors are still yours to sell. The useful takeaway is that YouTube is now packaging podcasts by genre for advertisers. Being clearly marked as a podcast and fitting a clear genre makes a show easier to sell, both for YouTube and for your own sponsor pitches.

YouTube isn't the only platform courting video podcasters with money. Apple Podcasts added video with dynamic ads, and Spotify pays through the Spotify Partner Program. For a plan that covers all three, see our video podcast playbook for 2026.

FAQ

What is the YouTube Top Podcasts lineup?

It's a YouTube Select ad package that lets US advertisers reserve ads across top podcast channels in one vertical: Sports, News, Comedy, True Crime or Society & Culture. YouTube announced it on March 12, 2026.

Can I apply to join a podcast lineup?

No. YouTube hasn't published an application or selection criteria. YouTube Select lineups cover the top 1% of popular channels in a market, so inclusion follows from audience size.

Is the lineup available outside the US?

YouTube announced it as a US lineup, and the sports lineup launched for US advertisers. We found no announcement for other countries.

Do shows in a lineup earn more?

YouTube hasn't published separate revenue terms for lineup ads. Ad revenue on long-form videos is shared under the YouTube Partner Program, where YouTube pays 55% of net revenue from watch page ads.

Does a podcast need to be video to count on YouTube?

Yes. Each episode on YouTube is a video, and MP3s can't be turned into podcasts. If you only have audio, you need a video version of each episode before YouTube can list the show as a podcast.