Recent deals by star podcasters to bring video episodes of their shows to Netflix were surely lucrative, but the big bet by hosts like Barstool’s Dan “Big Cat” Katz is that viewers will follow them from YouTube to Netflix.
Katz, who hosts Pardon My Take with PFT Commenter and is also an executive at Barstool, migrated episodes of his show to Netflix starting in January as part of a broader deal with Barstool reportedly worth eight figures. Since the move, the show has continued to post original content on its YouTube channel, but anyone who wants to watch full episodes has to do so on Netflix.
And in a recent interview with Front Office Sports, Katz affirmed his confidence that audiences will soon find it normal to go to the streamer to watch podcasts.
“We were kind of the tip of the spear for them,” Katz said.
“Which, that’s a little scary, because there’s a little bit of tension where people are like, ‘Well, I’m not going to watch podcasts on Netflix.’ I get it. I think where we’re going to end up in a couple of years, it’s going to be very commonplace for people to consume their podcasts on Netflix. So being the first to do it is always a little scary, but it was a great opportunity, and they’ve been great partners.”
Barstool’s Spittin’ Chiclets hockey podcast and The Ryen Russillo Show also publish video episodes to Netflix now as part of the deal.
Other companies like The Ringer and iHeartMedia struck similar licensing agreements with Netflix late last year, which also brought many non-sports podcasts to the streamer.
A recent report from the analytics company Samba TV, tracking Netflix podcast viewership on televisions, showed that sports shows have been among the least popular compared with other video shows the streamer is licensing, such as The Breakfast Club or Murder With My Husband.
However, this aligns with broader industry trends. Sports podcasts are, broadly speaking, less popular than news or true crime shows.
Big Cat believes user habits will evolve, and that PMT is well-positioned to ride that wave. And as they wait for audiences to follow them to Netflix, the revenue that he and his Barstool colleagues are drawing certainly doesn’t hurt.
“We are able to now monetize the video portion of our podcast in a way that we never were even close to on YouTube,” he said.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.