Netflix is ​​betting on podcasts to become the new daytime programming

When you’re listening to a podcast, you’re probably not opening the Netflix app — just yet.

That may change, if Netflix does. The downloader signed contracts with them iHeartMedia and Barstool Games this week, in addition to the latest agreement with Spotifyto get the freedom to choose the selected movies. The company is also said to be in talks with them SiriusXM.

Podcasters see this as an offensive move with YouTube as a primary target. And the data provide a convincing argument. YouTube shared this week what viewers watched 700 million hours of podcasts on social media (such as TV) in 2025, up from 400 million last year.

“When people start spending less time watching television, and more time watching short or cheap, cheap content on YouTube, that could be a long-term risk for Netflix,” Matthew Dysart, an entertainment lawyer and former head of the podcast business at Spotify, told TechCrunch.

While podcasters may understand your motivations, not everyone is convinced of Netflix’s move. Some players told TechCrunch that they’re not sure there’s any long-term value in video streaming, while others are worried that Netflix is ​​fueling the podcast bubble.

“They’re saying, ‘We want to be the king of content, and the only way we’re going to do that is if we can move on YouTube,'” Ronald Young Jr. of the podcaster told TechCrunch. However, Young Jr. he thinks people are turning on video podcasts and letting them play in the background, realizing that ESPN has been doing some kind of this for longer than we’ve been mentioning.

Audio for video podcasts

When independent musicians Mike Schubert and Sequoia Simone launched their new album “Speakers” this year, he saw the trend around video games and decided to launch the show as the first video to be produced on YouTube and Spotify.

“None of us had ever done a video before, so we were like, ‘Why don’t we just start from scratch and make this video?'” Schubert told TechCrunch.

Schubert found that his audience was disaffected with the video, perhaps because he’s spent nearly a decade producing podcasts, cultivating a fanbase that already loves and anticipates the audio.

“We put in a voice-only unit, and it did the same thing, smartly,” he said. “Why don’t we waste a lot of time and energy on this video and risk delaying the session when we can just play the music?”

Young Jr. he decided to use more energy in the video, but he decided against it – like Schubert and Simone, he realized that he had created an audience that would rather listen to podcasts than watch them.

“I’m like, ‘So who am I praying for?'” he said. “And I realized that the pivot is going to be for advertisers, podcasters, and people who think video is where everyone is going.”

However, there are still some consumers who want to watch a video – even if it’s just a preview – as evidenced by YouTube’s impressive statistics.

Mikah Sargent, podcast producer and host on TWiT.tvworks with shows like “This Week in Tech,” which has had a video segment for more than fifteen years. (Disclosure: I host a show at TWiT.tv once a month.)

“Something I hear all the time from our audience is… ‘you were my lifeline when I was going through a tough time, or I needed to travel across the country, and having you there to listen helped me get through the time,'” Sargent told TechCrunch. “There’s a lot of time to have podcasts. So Netflix can look at that and say, ‘Ooh, we have something that sometimes takes more time and downloads than you can make a regular show.’

What is a podcast?

There is a disconnect between how producers and tech companies think about podcasts. For people who make podcasts, a podcast can be a talk show like what’s on YouTube, but it can also be a genre that doesn’t translate seamlessly to video, such as fantasy fiction with voiceovers and actors, or the kind of audio news you’d find on NPR.

“I think this is related to how the word podcast is now,” podcaster Eric Silver told TechCrunch. “It means everything. It just means showing now.”

For these independent producers, what’s happening between Netflix and Spotify doesn’t immediately affect the day-to-day. But podcasters remember what happened when Spotify bought and consolidated a large share of the market, created a bubble, and then. bursting the same bubble. The results reverberated throughout the industry studio closure, dismissal. So when a big tech company comes in to their business, they’re skeptical.

“In every entertainment and media industry, when companies merge, the people who are in power right now continue to be richer and wealthier than the companies below them,” Silver said. “The future is more and more, and it has fewer things.”

Netflix isn’t as extreme as Spotify. The latter company spent billions acquiring several startups and studios, allowing Spotify to control the entire podcast production process, from recording software to marketing tools.

“I think what Netflix is ​​doing is a little more predictable than what Spotify is doing,” Young Jr. said. “Spotify blindly threw money at top producers, and they screwed up the market in the process, because the minute you love Joe Rogan for $250 million…

But what appears to be a shift in revenue to the podcast industry isn’t exactly surprising for a company like Netflix, which it is. on the road making about $45 billion this year.

“Netflix and Spotify are similar in this way – they aggressively try to test new profits by looking at the best performers and spend money that is not great from the point of view of global technology, but is useful to the economy of the creators, to learn quickly if there is ‘there’.” Dysart said.

Netflix has only partnered with media companies so far, rather than creating it themselves like Spotify did, but Dysart thinks Netflix’s money is just getting started.

“I would expect Netflix at some point to try to do a nine-person deal with a top podcast producer,” he added. “I would also expect Netflix to make a big change with the top people on the original podcasts.”

If Netflix gets its way, our culture will stop watching TV shows and daytime talk shows, and start watching podcasts.

“Back then, women had a background show while they were doing things,” says Sargent. “Now, people have a podcast playing in the background while they’re doing things, and if Netflix can be the place they go to do that, I think that’s a win for the company.”