Netflix Co-CEO Says Video Podcasts Might Come to the Streamer

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says video podcasts might be the following format to seem on the streaming service because it pursues creators in lots of areas.

On the corporate’s first quarter earnings name Thursday, Sarandos mentioned the “strains are getting blurry” between podcasts and discuss reveals, in response to a query on whether or not video pods may work on Netflix.

“As the recognition of video podcasts grows, I think you may see a few of them discover their method to Netflix,” Sarandos mentioned.

His feedback confirmed earlier reporting by Enterprise Insider that Netflix was exploring potential offers with video podcasters because it regarded to its subsequent part of development.

Netflix execs have grow to be more and more aggressive about placing YouTube creator-led reveals on the platform and speaking up its benefits to creators.

This comes as YouTube leads the media pack by way of TV watch time. In response to Nielsen, YouTube accounted for 12% of TV watching time in March, extending its lead over Netflix, which got here in at 7.9%.

Netflix’s high execs have these days argued that Netflix is best than YouTube in serving to creators develop and earn money. Alongside different media giants like Amazon and Disney, Netflix has additionally been leaning into fashionable YouTubers, choosing up offers with the Sidemen, preschool educator Ms. Rachel, and the dwell courting present Pop the Balloon.

“We’re on the lookout for the following era of nice creators, and we’re wanting in every single place, not simply in movie colleges and positively not simply in Hollywood,” Sarandos mentioned on the decision. “Creators at the moment have instruments that have been unimaginable a decade in the past to inform tales, to succeed in viewers.”

Some creators are longing for the status, up-front cash, and skill to succeed in new viewers that Netflix and different Hollywood gamers can afford.

However for others, particularly well-established creators, the benefit is much less clear after they’ve constructed multiplatform companies independently and revel in management over their productions in addition to direct relationships with their audiences.