At this point, the moat metaphor used to describe Netflix’s advantage over its competitors is perhaps less appropriate than envisioning C.E.O. Ted Sarandos on an island kingdom of his own creation—one that’s about to get a lot more crowded. Beginning this Sunday, some of the most prolific sports audio stars of the last decade, including Bill Simmons, Zach Lowe, and Dan “Big Cat” Katz, will move their podcast video shows onto the streamer and abandon their presence on YouTube. For these guys, the move is predicated on a hope that the platform can offer TV-sized paychecks, even as their shows mostly retain the D.I.Y. aesthetic—and perhaps offer a preamble of what talk shows, that old standby format, looks like in the streaming era.

In many ways, the move is both a coup and a serious gamble. But there’s no question that it’s the right time for Netflix to experiment with sports video podcasts. According to Spotify, viewership on video sports shows increased by more than 400 percent year-over-year as of September 2025; female viewership rose more than 350 percent in the same period; and similar trends were seen in the U.K., Brazil, and Australia. Meanwhile, on YouTube, users reportedly streamed more than 700 million hours of podcasts on TV sets in October alone—up from 400 million hours a year prior. YouTube’s TV app is also recording significant increases in sports viewing, rising by 30 percent in 2024. Netflix, which needs more tonnage, is hoping it can steal both viewers and advertising dollars from YouTube.

And yet if Sarandos’s podcast play is going to really work, Netflix needs to replicate some of what audiences actually want from a video podcast experience. After all, podcasts on other platforms are essentially interactive, with easy-to-navigate chapters that allow people to skip sections they’re not interested in, and comment sections that foster community. Perhaps most importantly, the most popular hourlong or multihour episodes are often clipped into shorter videos, designed to target different audiences on platforms like YouTube, where algorithms help with growth and discovery.

At the moment, Netflix simply isn’t set up to offer the podcast experience that audiences expect. And if Sarandos wants to win over top YouTube sports video stars like ESPN’s Pat McAfee and the Kelce brothers, he has to demonstrate that leaving YouTube isn’t a threat to their growth, but instead the savvy move at a time when viewership habits are rapidly changing. To achieve this, Netflix needs to make the platform a welcoming place for actual podcast fans, not just TV viewers. Herewith, three humble suggestions…

Giving audiences the ability to choose how they watch their podcasts will be another key factor in Netflix’s success during this rollout. Both Spotify and Apple allow users to manipulate audio and video speed, and also skip ads with a simple tap on their phone screen. But one of the most important interactive components is chapter-skipping. Consider a Barstool episode where Dave Portnoy doesn’t appear for 20 minutes. On Spotify, it’s easy to skip straight to Portnoy by clicking on the relevant chapter. On YouTube, chapters are broken up into separate videos, or are easily labeled so that viewers can jump ahead. These segmented chapters also create multiple new discovery opportunities via search. On YouTube, this taps into Google’s own algorithmic tools. On Netflix, this could look like someone searching for a specific athlete, sport, or even topic of interest, and being served a podcast episode about that specific query.

While Netflix offers the usual playback functions—fast forward, rewind, intro-skipping, and playback speeds—the degree of content manipulation, in comparison with Apple and Spotify, is seriously limited. Podcast viewers rely on these functions and have been trained to use them, which is why instituting an easy-to-navigate chapter labeling function should be at the top of the list of upcoming UX tweaks. In many ways, it feels like table stakes. Netflix executive Greg Peters talks more and more each quarter about finding ways to integrate artificial intelligence into the company’s product—maybe this is that opportunity.

Obviously, content creators enjoy a different kind of connection with their audience than traditional TV and movie talent. These parasocial relationships are fueled by accessibility—for example, viewers can offer live reactions on a series like The Pat McAfee Show, and hosts are more likely to engage with their fans on Instagram and X—which not only drives engagement, but also creates additional revenue avenues. This might include charging for additional content through membership programs, similar to sites like Patreon, where podcasters earned more than $470 million in 2024, according to the company. Podcasters are also generating more revenue than ever through subscriptions, with more than 66 percent of creators saying they earned more in 2024 from subs than they did five years ago.

We know that Netflix offers lucrative upfront payments, but the company still needs to prove that it can generate other opportunities for creators to get paid. Right now, every podcast company and creator agreeing to a Netflix deal is wading into the same trial period that Joe Rogan experienced with Spotify, when the streamer reportedly paid more than $200 million for exclusive rights. Rogan took the guaranteed money, gave it a spin, and ended up missing YouTube so much that he re-signed with Spotify but purposely made it nonexclusive. If Netflix wants to prove that this can work, executives need to make some concessions and meet podcasters on their own turf, which might mean acting a bit more like YouTube instead of just looking like it.

Thanks, Julia. See you all on Thursday.
John