This story was originally published in On Background with Mark Stenberg, a free, weekly newsletter that explores the key themes shaping the media industry. You can sign up for it here.
Late last year, Netflix signed a series of deals that effectively served as the starting gun for an industrywide race for podcasting talent.
In October, it penned a partnership with Spotify to host more than a dozen of its most popular podcasts, including programs from The Ringer and Barstool Sports. The following month, it inked a similar tie-up with iHeart Media, bringing popular podcasts like The Breakfast Club and My Favorite Murder to the streaming platform as video series.
Since then, other streaming services have rushed to stand up similar arrangements.
In October, Tubi signed a $150 million partnership with the podcast studio Audiochuck to adapt its portfolio into television programming. At its NewFront presentation in March, the free, ad-supported streamer also announced that it had struck deals for original programming with the YouTubers Jesser and Deestroying.
In February, MS Now partnered with Crooked Media to bring its podcast programming to live television, part of a broader programming push from the network as it plans to launch a standalone streaming service this summer. And in March, Versant, the parent company of MS Now, emerged as the leading candidate to acquire the Vox Media Podcast Network, according to reporting from The New York Times.
The streaming services that have not yet introduced podcasts onto their platforms are rapidly making plans to do so, according to interviews with media executives, agents, and creator monetization firms. Content strategists at both Roku and Amazon told me they are actively looking to bring more creator content to their platforms, whether by adapting audio podcasts into video series or working with YouTubers.
