➽ More pods may make their way to Netflix. Spotify might not be alone as a podcast supplier to the biggest streaming platform in the world. Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Netflix is in talks with iHeartMedia to license at least some of its video podcasts. iHeartMedia has a significantly larger portfolio than Spotify, of course, and among its more prominent titles are My Favorite Murder, Stuff You Should Know, The Jay Shetty Podcast, The Breakfast Club (primarily a radio show but also distributed as a podcast), and Las Culturistas (which, yeah, feels destined for a big streamer sooner or later, though this would be the less meaningful way to do it).
Not a ton of detail yet, and neither iHeartMedia nor Netflix gave an official comment to Bloomberg, so the larger set of questions are still the same. The one I’m most curious about: Will Netflix take any of iHeartMedia’s political programming? Probably not, but strange things are happening.
If Netflix does end up striking a licensing deal with iHeartMedia, it alters the overarching story in a few ways. First, it suggests that Netflix is set to move beyond cautious experimentation and take a more aggressive stance in its podcast experimentation. Second, it makes Spotify’s arrangement far less special. And finally, it further reinforces how directly Netflix is positioning itself against YouTube.
This potential Netflix–iHeartMedia partnership isn’t the only development worth tracking. The Hollywood Reporter noted this week that Netflix has apparently been hitting up the major talent agencies to potentially sign more high-profile video podcasters, presumably beyond the iHeartMedia ranks. And in other notable moves, Audiochuck, the true crime network fronted by Crime Junkie’s Ashley Flowers, is moving from SiriusXM to … Tubi?
➽ The Golden Globes Podcast Category is already quite the mess. Just in case you missed it: in late October, Breaker’s Oliver Darcy reported that Penske Media — which owns the Globes as well as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, and Billboard (and happens to be an investor in Vox Media, New York Magazine’s parent company) — sent out a pitch deck to some of the podcasts eligible for nomination. The offer: For Your Consideration (FYC) ad packages priced upwards of $75,000 across Penske’s outlets.
Now, FYC campaigns are standard Hollywood business. Indeed, it’s the very lucrative one that Penske has been aggressively working to dominate for god knows how many years. And sure, the company already does this kinda thing with the rest of the Globes’ usual film and television categories, where the ouroboros of coverage and commerce is mostly taken for granted. But Darcy argues that, on top of this version veering ever deeper into a pay-for-play arrangement, it also opens the door for the potential reputation-laundering by figures like, say, Candace Owens and Tucker Carlson, who are eligible for nomination.
Anyway, the general industry response to the Globes’ podcast category thus far has been mixed to negative. There are already grumbles about the use of Luminate data to identify the twenty-five podcasts eligible for nomination, since Luminate is itself owned by Penske and so deepens the sense that this whole thing is one big black box of self-dealing. And as The Ankler’s Natalie Jarvey further reported in October, Luminate already even had to redo its list after leaving off several major shows. Some podcasters, she found, are understandably thinking of sitting this one out. A mess indeed.
➽ Speaking of Penske… Axios reported that the Vox Media board is apparently considering spinning out its podcast network as a separate entity. Part of the reason? Penske is potentially interested in Vox Media’s publishing assets, and not the podcast network, which, since it’s the fastest growing part of the business, is presumably valued more aggressively. Gulp.
➽ And speaking of The Ankler… Shout-out to their flagship show, which just relaunched as Ankler Agenda last week with Elaine Low as the new anchor. As a devoted Prestige Junkie listener, I might just check it out.
➽ Big press stretch for TrueAnon of late, with GQ and the New York Times pubbing profiles over the last few weeks on the sardonic, conspiracy-curious leftist-cast hosted by Brace Belden (f.k.a PissPigGranddad), Liz Franczak, and Steven Goldberg, a.k.a. Yung Chomsky. But the piece you want to hit is Belden’s essay for The Baffler, “The Hatred of Podcasting.”
➽ The Ryen Russillo Show officially picks up at Barstool Sports, with the new show art showing feet. Russillo had previously been podcasting at The Ringer. Speaking of which, did you hear Barstool might be moving to Hoboken?
➽ Stuff I’m checking out… On The Media’s reprise of “The Harvard Plan”; the new season of In the Dark, called “Blood Relatives”; Sarah Marshall’s The Devil You Know; issue two of Signal Hill; honestly, catching up with an insane backlog.
