Apr 22, 2025 - Business
Netflix eyes video podcasts
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Illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios
Video has taken over the podcast industry and everyone is in.
Why it matters: Audio dollars are growing but still tiny compared to video. The podcast video genre poses much bigger revenue opportunities.
- Digital audio, including podcasting, grew 8.5% year over year to $7.6 billion in revenue in 2024, whereas digital video grew 19.2% to $62.1 billion in revenue, according to a recent IAB/PwC Internet Advertising report.
- About three-fourths of U.S. podcast listeners categorized discussion-based videos on YouTube as podcasts, per Oxford Road and Edison Research's "What's A Podcast?" report. And 1 in 3 podcast consumers prefer podcasts with a video component, per Cumulus Media.
Driving the news: Netflix is interested in adding video podcasts to its platform, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the company's latest earnings call in response to an analyst's question.
- "We want to work with kind of great creators across all kinds of media that consumers love and podcasts, to your point, have become a lot more video forward. ... As the popularity of video podcasts grow, I suspect you'll see some of them find their way to Netflix," Sarandos said.
Yes, but: Netflix is late to the party.
- YouTube recently touted its growth in podcasting with more than 1 billion monthly active viewers of podcasts. It previously shared that viewers watched more than 400 million hours of podcasts monthly on living room devices.
- Spotify has invested more in helping podcasters create and monetize videos, including its new offer of uninterrupted video podcasts. More than 330,000 video podcasts are available on Spotify and more than 270 million users have watched a video podcast on the platform, according to the company.
- Amazon's Wondery has built out more video support by launching videos on its app for Wondery+ subscribers, creating free ad-supported streaming TV channels on Prime Video Live, distributing on YouTube, and introducing animated visuals to narrative podcasts, per Adweek.
- SiriusXM has signed podcasts with popular video versions like Alex Cooper's "Call Her Daddy."
What to watch: Apple's podcast app supports video podcasts, but the service is not known for video viewing and simultaneously has lost listenership to competitors.
- YouTube has become the most popular platform for podcast listening, attracting 31% of weekly podcast listeners in the U.S. compared to Spotify with 27% and Apple with 15%, per Edison Research.
