I find the iOS UI patterns to be consistent, but the "skins" on those UI elements tend to vary quite a bit. Now this is the case on the iPad, since I don't have an iPhone I cannot speak to that. Just getting a podcast program on android that had a consistent UI where things made sense was a fruitless effort. Streaming content is not consistent either, some apps stream really well (audio galaxy), while other stream terribly. These are the types of things that I found maddening.
The ActionBar is very consistent on these apps - of the first several dozen I only saw 2 that were not using an ActionBar.
Streaming has nothing to do with UI consistency. It's a battle, because the APIs are very high level and you're limited in the amount of control you have without a ton of work, and it seems like manufacturers are screwing with the stack somewhere. Doesn't matter, though, because we're talking about UI consistency.
The podcatcher app is sort of ripe for some good competition in this space, with Google Listen no longer available. I am working on something. http://imgur.com/RtG8e , but someone else should get in here too.
Specifically for podcasts, I have found the Doggcatcher app to be very high quality, streams very well, and still has plenty of options and features to make it work exactly how you want it to. It's $5 and well worth it:
