In practice
Pair it with VideoObject structured data. The sitemap aids discovery; the markup is what earns a video thumbnail in results.
Keep duration and thumbnail accurate — mismatched metadata is a common reason video rich results quietly stop appearing.
Why it matters
Video results carry a thumbnail, which changes click-through far more than a position gain of one or two places.
Embedded players often hide the video file from crawlers entirely, and the sitemap is the way back in.
Related terms