\n<\/p>\n
When you tune in to a podcast, you\u2019re probably not opening the Netflix app \u2013 at least for now.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That might change, if Netflix gets its way. The streamer signed deals with iHeartMedia<\/a> and Barstool Sports<\/a> this week, in addition to a recent deal with Spotify<\/a>, to gain exclusive video rights to select shows. The company is also rumored to be in talks with SiriusXM<\/a>.<\/p>\n Podcasters see this as an offensive move with YouTube as the primary target. And the data provides a convincing argument. YouTube shared this week that viewers watched over 700 million hours<\/a> of podcasts on living room devices (like TVs) in 2025, up from 400 million last year.<\/p>\n \u201cAs people begin to spend less time watching traditional television, and more time watching short form or low cost, low production value content on YouTube, that might present a long term competitive threat to Netflix,\u201d Matthew Dysart, an entertainment attorney and former head of podcast business affairs at Spotify, told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n While podcasters might understand the motivation, not everyone is convinced about Netflix\u2019s move. Some podcasters told TechCrunch they\u2019re not sure there is long-term value in video podcasts, while others are worried Netflix is contributing to a podcast bubble.<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re basically saying, \u2018we want to be the king of content, and the only way we\u2019re going to do that is if we take a swipe at YouTube,\u2019\u201d podcaster Ronald Young Jr. told TechCrunch. Still, Young Jr. thinks people are turning on video podcasts and letting them play in the background, noting that ESPN has been doing some version of this for much longer than we\u2019ve been able to name it.<\/p>\n When independent podcasters Mike Schubert and Sequoia Simone launched their new show \u201cProfessional Talkers\u201d<\/a> this year, they noted the buzz around video podcasts and decided to start the new show as a video-first production on YouTube and Spotify.<\/p>\n Techcrunch event<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSan Francisco<\/span> \u201cNeither of us had done video before, so we were like, \u2018Why don\u2019t we just start from the beginning and make this a video show?\u2019\u201d Schubert told TechCrunch.\u00a0<\/p>\n Schubert found that his audience was ambivalent toward the video, perhaps because he has spent nearly a decade releasing audio podcasts, cultivating a fanbase that already enjoys and expects audio content.<\/p>\n \u201cWe posted an audio-only episode, and it did pretty similarly, numbers-wise,\u201d he said. \u201cSo why would we put so much time and effort into the video and then run the risk of the episode being late when we can just do audio only?\u201d<\/p>\n Young Jr. considered investing more energy into video, but decided against it \u2013 like Schubert and Simone, he realized that he built an audience that prefers listening to podcasts than viewing them.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m like, \u2018Well who am I pivoting for?\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cAnd I realized that the pivot would be for advertisers, for podcast executives, and for people who think that video is the direction that everyone\u2019s going.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Still, there are some consumers who want to see video \u2014 even as a passive show to turn on in the background \u2014 as evidenced by YouTube\u2019s staggering viewership stats.<\/p>\n Mikah Sargent, a podcast producer and host at TWiT.tv<\/a>, works with shows like \u201cThis Week in Tech,\u201d which have had a video component for more than fifteen years. (Disclosure: I co-host a show at TWiT.tv once per month.)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSomething that I regularly hear from our listeners is\u2026 \u2018you were my background when I was going through a rough time, or I needed to travel across the country, and having you there to listen to helped me pass the time,\u2019\u201d Sargent told TechCrunch. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of passed time with podcasts. So Netflix can look at that and go, \u2018Ooh, we get to have this thing that in some cases takes up more time and more streaming than you would get with a typical show.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n There\u2019s a disconnect between how creators and tech companies each think about podcasts. For people who make podcasts, a podcast can be a conversational show like the ones on YouTube, but it can also be a format that doesn\u2019t translate seamlessly to video, like scripted fiction with sound design and voice actors, or the kind of reported, refined audio stories you\u2019d find on NPR. <\/p>\n \u201cI think this has to do with how squishy the word podcast is now,\u201d podcaster Eric Silver told TechCrunch. \u201cIt means anything. It just means show now.\u201d<\/p>\n For these independent creators, the corporate goings-on between Netflix and Spotify don\u2019t immediately impact their day-to-day. But podcasters remember what happened when Spotify bought up and consolidated a significant chunk of the industry, created a bubble, then burst that same bubble itself<\/a>. The impact reverberated across the industry with studio closures<\/a>, layoffs<\/a>, and a conception among onlookers that podcasting was \u201cdead.\u201d So when another big tech company comes waltzing into their industry, they\u2019re skeptical.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn any form of entertainment and media, when companies consolidate, the people who currently have power continue to get richer and richer than the industry underneath it,\u201d Silver said. \u201cThe future gets more and more murky, and has less and less resources.\u201d<\/p>\n Netflix isn\u2019t making as extreme moves as Spotify. The latter company spent billions acquiring several tech startups and studios, allowing Spotify to control the entire process of making a podcast, from the recording software to the ad sales tools.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that what Netflix is doing is a little bit more calculated than what Spotify did,\u201d Young Jr. said. \u201cSpotify blindly threw money at the top creators, and they kind of cratered the market in doing so, because the minute you value Joe Rogan at $250 million\u2026\u00a0 you value them so highly that the regular podcaster is like, where do I fall on this?\u201d<\/p>\nThe buzz of video podcasts<\/h2>\n
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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tOctober 13-15, 2026<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\nWhat is a podcast anyway?<\/h2>\n