What File Format Can Podcasts Be In?

What file formats can be included in a podcast?

Great question. There are two answers. The use of the term podcast has become all encompassing, it now seems to mean any type of RSS feed that contains any enclosure rather than just a feed that contains audio content. As a result I will tell you the popular formats for all enclosures and I will also tell you the popular formats for audio files.

Because of the popularity of the iTunes namespace I have indicated what file formats support iTunes.

Popular Podcast Formats
audio file formats
MP3 (iTunes supports)
M4a  (iTunes supports)
WAV


Popular Podcast for Any Enclosure Type
video file formats
.MP4  (iTunes supports)
.M4V  (iTunes supports)
.MOV (iTunes supports)
.AVI
.WMV

image file formats
.JPG  
.GIF  
.PNG

other file formats
.PDF (iTunes supports)
.PPT
.DOC
.EXE
.ZIP
.XML
.SWF