How Netflix and Spotify's podcast deal is blurring TV, music and talk

Netflix and Spotify have agreed to jointly carry video episodes of "On Purpose With Jay Shetty," a multiyear deal reported to be worth close to $100 million. Video episodes began arriving on both platforms on July 13, 2026, according to Spotify's own announcement.

The agreement is the most visible piece of a much larger buildout. Over the past year, Netflix has signed separate deals with iHeartMedia and Spotify's own studio arm to bring dozens of video podcasts onto its service, while Spotify has leaned harder into video as a growth engine inside its own app. The moves come as audience data show more Americans now say they turn to YouTube, not Spotify, for podcasts.

A $100 Million Bet on One Show

The Shetty deal is unusual because it splits distribution between two companies that don't typically share content. Under its terms, video episodes of "On Purpose" run on both Spotify and Netflix, and Spotify also becomes the show's global advertising sales representative, according to Spotify's newsroom. Audio-only episodes remain on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other platforms, but new full video episodes are no longer posted to YouTube, Tubefilter reported.

Variety reported that three other companies bid in the nine-figure range for the rights before Netflix and Spotify won them. The show had been distributed through iHeartMedia for three years; iHeartMedia sought a four-year renewal, but the two sides could not agree on terms, Variety reported. "On Purpose" has drawn more than 1 billion listens since launching in 2019 and ranked No. 24 on Spotify's list of the most-listened-to podcasts in the U.S. in 2025, with past guests including Michelle Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Will Smith and Tom Hanks.

Shetty said the arrangement reflects "a new era where interviews can impact culture as powerfully as movies, music and television," while Netflix content-licensing vice president Lauren Smith said the show would give an "expansive new canvas" to its visually driven interviews, according to Spotify's announcement.

Netflix's Bigger Podcast Buildout

The Shetty deal sits inside a wider campaign. In October 2025, Netflix and Spotify announced a separate partnership bringing video versions of Spotify Studios and Ringer podcasts — including "The Bill Simmons Podcast," "The Rewatchables," "The Big Picture" and "Dissect" — to Netflix in the U.S., with more markets to follow, Spotify's newsroom said.

Two months later, Netflix struck a deal with iHeartMedia for exclusive video rights to 14 shows, including "The Breakfast Club," "My Favorite Murder" and "Stuff You Missed in History Class," while iHeartMedia keeps audio-only distribution on iHeartRadio and elsewhere, TechCrunch reported. TheWrap reported that Netflix was building toward 50 to 75 original video podcast titles, on top of the Ringer podcasts it was getting from Spotify.

Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters described the push as an opportunity to integrate "high-quality video podcasts that broadens the Netflix offering," TheWrap reported. A Netflix strategy source told the outlet the goal was to win what the company calls "moments of truth" — the time viewers spend on YouTube or TikTok instead of Netflix.

Spotify Plays Both Sides of the Deal

Spotify's position is unusual because it is licensing shows to Netflix while also competing with it directly. In the Shetty deal, Spotify keeps the show inside its own app and controls global ad sales; in the Ringer and Spotify Studios deal, it hands video rights to Netflix outright. Spotify vice president Roman Wasenmüller said the Shetty partnership "reflects our continued investment in video and our commitment to helping creators grow global franchises on Spotify."

The rationale shows up in Spotify's own numbers. At its Investor Day on May 21, 2026, the company said more than 500 million users had streamed a video podcast on Spotify, up nearly 50% year over year, and that users who watch video podcasts spend more time and use more devices across podcasts, music and audiobooks combined, according to Spotify's newsroom.

Where Podcasting, TV and Music Now Overlap

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has said plainly that "lines are getting blurry" between podcasts and talk shows, adding that "as the popularity of video podcasts grows, I suspect you'll see some of them find their way to Netflix," according to eMarketer's reporting on his remarks.

That overlap runs through music as well as television. The Ringer's "Dissect" is now part of Netflix's lineup, and Spotify — a company built on music streaming — is now the ad-sales representative behind an interview show whose guest list has included Madonna and Selena Gomez alongside Michelle Obama and Kobe Bryant. The same long-form interview format that once required a seat on a late-night couch or a radio press junket now runs natively inside apps built for streaming television and streaming music.

The Audience Is Already Moving

The push comes as the audience for podcasts keeps shifting toward video. Edison Research's 2026 study on podcast consumption found that 58% of Americans age 12 and older now consume a podcast monthly — about 167 million people — and that 57% of podcast consumers say they both listen and watch depending on the situation, Inside Radio reported in its summary of the findings.

The same study found that YouTube is now the platform 37% of weekly podcast consumers say they use most often, up from 31% two years earlier; Spotify, which previously led that measure, has been overtaken, according to Inside Radio.

Not Every Creator Wants In

The buildout has friction. TheWrap reported that some podcast producers, citing the sports outlet Wave Sports as an example, have been reluctant to sign exclusive deals with streamers, preferring to keep their shows on YouTube where they already reach viewers directly. YouTube draws more than 1 billion monthly podcast viewers, a scale Netflix is still building toward with licensed and original content, TheWrap reported; Ryan Jann, an executive at the podcast producer Wave Sports & Entertainment, said YouTube is "elevating the quality of their content at scale" while Netflix works to build a bigger library.

Netflix was also in discussions with iHeartMedia and SiriusXM for further shows, potentially including hosts such as Alex Cooper, Howard Stern and Mel Robbins, according to TheWrap's November 2025 reporting. Between the Shetty deal, the Ringer and Spotify Studios titles and the iHeartMedia slate, Netflix's video podcast library was on pace to include more than 30 weekly titles by mid-2026 — drawing together relationships across radio, sports media and streaming audio that didn't previously need to overlap.