Netflix is on a massive holiday shopping spree. With the company focused on bringing a podcast experience to its platform, it has opened the checkbook and is moving forward with its plan. In the last two months, the streaming giant has secured exclusive video agreements with several top sports podcasts, ensuring their video product is exclusive to the Netflix subscriber.
That’s the question I continue to have about all of this: the word subscriber. I asked in October the same question I have today. Would you pay to watch a podcast that you’ve always gotten for free? Especially if there are still free options to consume the content elsewhere?
There are positives and negatives for the podcaster, and the same is true for the distributor. Without a doubt, Netflix is flexing its collective financial muscle and taking away content from its top competitor on YouTube. In the end, will it matter and at what cost for the creator themselves?
Consumers pay close attention to their pocketbooks now more than ever. We’ve seen costs rise while wages remain flat, or at least not keep up with the costs of everyday life. The costs of watching entertainment have gone up. You need multiple streaming services to watch NBA, MLB, and NHL products. The WWE moved from Peacock to ESPN, and the UFC begins its Paramount+ journey in 2026.
Netflix is becoming more of a player in the sports content game and has become more involved over the last couple of years. Between Jake Paul, Monday Night Raw, and the NFL, the streaming giant has become a normal destination for sports fans to find sports action.
But does your appetite for your favorite podcast make the subscription cost easier to swallow?
I think it would be unrealistic to expect a massive subscriber influx for Netflix based on exclusive podcast video deals. Shows like Pardon My Take, The Breakfast Club, and Bill Simmons have devoted followings. Those audiences may believe they will follow anywhere. Still, adding another subscription fee will not be an easy decision for many.
There are several ways to look at this.
From a creator standpoint, Netflix is cutting you a check to produce the same content you always have. Your content still lives in audio form and can be distributed anywhere your consumer receives your podcast. The video portion (assuming you had one already) now belongs to Netflix, meaning the video content that you housed for your audience for free on YouTube now requires a subscription cost from the same consumers you built that relationship with over the years.
What was once free is no longer. This is a test of audience loyalty, and more than likely, not for the better. It won’t affect a massive amount of your audience—or will it?
Pardon My Take has over 659,000 subscribers, with a daily average of 283,000 views over the past two weeks, according to Social Blade. Does the paycheck from Netflix negate the viewership that the podcast could lose by moving to Netflix? For the creator, this is a money grab.
YouTube has been a proven commodity not only in how consumers watch podcast content but also in how they search for it. It is a free tool that allows anyone to find niche programming their heart desires.
When Pat McAfee signed with ESPN, he made it very clear that staying on YouTube was an important factor for his show to come to the network. Allowing a free option to remain alongside a big paycheck from a network has only benefitted the program’s growth and influence in the creator economy.
To eliminate yourself from that free content pool in exchange for a paycheck to put your content behind a paywall would seem foolish. In fact, Dan Le Batard assured his audience that Bill Simmons is not thrilled with the idea of being on Netflix because paywalls damage loyalty to brands.
Here’s another item to consider. Does the exclusive video component on Netflix apply to all videos? Does this mean clips of podcasts housed on Netflix cannot be shared on social channels, reels, or shorts? Doesn’t that hurt reach and influence in the creator economy? Does the Netflix money cover that lost engagement as well?
Questions need answers for the creator economy.
For generations, ubiquity has been the new exclusivity. For a podcast to thrive and survive, it must be made available everywhere for all to consume. Putting content behind paywalls builds walls to connect, rather than harvest, audiences.
From Netflix’s standpoint, shelling out money to podcasts that consumers can get for free could be seen as burning money. The company is betting that people will choose its platform for the video format. It assumes viewers prefer video over audio. The audio version remains free. It is also widely available beyond Netflix.
Another item to consider is whether Netflix buying content will eventually make costs rise for the consumer. Will my $20 a month go to $25 because Netflix had to acquire Chelsea Handler’s podcast?
If Netflix can pay movie studios to produce their own feature films, why not take a page from its own book: get unique content, invest in partnerships, and build programs, instead of simply repackaging content already available for free elsewhere?
That’s the exclusivity Netflix should chase: creating content unique to the platform it serves, with proven voices in the space. Build a network of creators under its own banner and make them the faces of a global content movement for the platform.
At the end of the day, creators are trading a guaranteed check for a partnership with an unproven player—one that may even put barriers between them and the audience they’ve spent years building. Netflix may be writing the check, but the question of loyalty, reach, and long-term influence remains unpaid.
Whether this gamble will pay off or leave creators wishing they had stayed in the free-for-all world of YouTube is a story only time can tell.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
