Netflix acquired the podcasts through a new deal with Spotify, Deadline reports. Episodes will still air on the latter streamer, but will be removed from YouTube, where they currently get tens of thousands of views. The full list of shows coming to Netflix also includes The McShay Show, Fairway Rollin’, The Mismatch, The Ringer F1 Show, The Ringer Fantasy Football Show, The Ringer NFL Show, The Ringer NBA Show, The Rewatchables, The Dave Chang Show, The Recipe Club, Dissect, Conspiracy Theories, and Serial Killers.
The move isn’t totally out of the blue. As YouTube continues to carve out its share of the streaming market, Netflix has gotten more bullish about poaching creators who originally found success on the platform, like children’s educator Ms. Rachel, science content creator Mark Rober, and the founders of online dating show Pop The Balloon. In a report published this summer, The New York Times posited that the two platforms were each other’s biggest competitors. In May, for example, they together accounted for 20 percent of all television viewing in the United States. (For context, Hulu, Disney+, and ESPN+ only made up 5 percent combined.) YouTube slightly edged out Netflix, however, with 12.5 percent of the count to Netflix’s 7.5 percent. It’s no wonder, then, that Netflix would try to claim some of the talent that brings YouTube that portion of the pie for itself. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos essentially said as much earlier this year. When a creator starts on YouTube, they can “cut their teeth or develop an idea,” he shared at a March event, per NYT. “It’s a little bit of a farm league… And then they can come up and do something that we would take the financial risk with them.”
Now, Spotify is taking its own financial risk to support Netflix in its quest. “This partnership marks a new chapter for podcasting,” shared Roman Wasenmüller, Head of Podcasts at Spotify, in a separate statement. “Together with Netflix, we’re expanding discovery, helping creators reach new audiences and giving fans around the world the chance to experience the stories they love and uncover favorites they never expected.” They’ll just need a pricey Netflix subscription to do it.
