From a web server, a video podcast can be distributed as a file or as a stream. Both methods have their advantages and disadvantages. Downloading complete video podcasts in advance gives the user the ability to play the video podcasts offline on, for example, a portable media player. A downloaded version can be watched many times with only one download, reducing bandwidth costs in this case. Streaming allows seeking (skipping portions of the file) without downloading the full video podcast, better statistics and lower bandwidth costs for the servers; however, users may have to face pauses in playback caused by slow transfer speeds.

A podcast client may work with a separate, or integrated player. One such example of the latter is iTunes, which is an unusual case of a web feed aggregator being added to a media player rather than vice versa.

Timeline

On 31 October 2003[1] Canadian film collective Rocket Ace Moving Pictures launches the serialized web-based video zombie comedy project Dead End Days at DeadEndDays.com while referred to by its creators as a "web-serial" throughout 2003 and 2004, it is adopted by the podcast community as a progenitor The creators retroactively add RSS features to the site.

On 1 January 2004 Steve Garfield launches his video blog and declares that 2004 would be the year of the video blog.   

On October 1st 2005 Terra: The Nature of Our World launched making it the first Natural History video podcast. It is produced in conjunction with the MFA program in Science & Natural History Filmmaking at Montana State University, Filmmakers for Conservation, and PBS  

On June 8 June 2006, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, launched her video podcast via the Chancellor's website, making her the first head of government to issue a regular video podcast

On December 16, 2006, Time magazine named its Person of the Year as "You", referring to independent content creators on the web and video podcasters in particular. Crash Test Kitchen, a video podcast begun in April 2005 by home cooks Waz and Lenny, was featured in the magazine as an example of this phenomenon. The magazine itself was a distinctive issue that featured a flexible mirror on the cover.

On April 13, 2007, the British panel game Have I Got News for You started to broadcast a vodcast called Have I Got News for You: The Inevitable Internet Spin-off. The first HIGNFY vodcast was presented by Jeremy Clarkson.

Another British panel game, QI, also announced that it would create a vodcast, starting in Series E. However, this was changed into a set of "Quickies", not downloadable and only viewable from the BBC website

On November 25th, 2007, Neil Fairbrother was featured in the Sunday Observer's Courvoisier Future 500 for creating pod3.tv, a web TV channel that creates and distributes TV shows as video podcasts.