Netflix and Spotify usually compete for every hour of viewer attention. Now they have joined forces in a single offer to take one creator away from YouTube. That creator is Jay Shetty and his show On Purpose.
From 13 July, the full video episodes of On Purpose will be published exclusively on Netflix and Spotify, while the audio stays on Apple Podcasts and elsewhere. According to Forbes, it is a multi-year deal worth up to $100 million.
Two years after Spotify opened Joe Rogan's show to competition and ended its era of exclusives, it is placing a similar bet again. This time, it is not alone.
The video leaves YouTube, the audio stays
From Monday, On Purpose will no longer run as a full video version on YouTube, where it had been published alongside Apple Podcasts and Spotify. Ashley Carman, who published the deal, wrote that “Jay Shetty is the newest podcaster to decide to stop posting his show to YouTube”.
Older episodes and short clips stay on YouTube. The audio continues without restriction on Apple Podcasts and other services, while three new video episodes a week will appear on Netflix and Spotify.
In the deal Spotify takes on the role of global advertising sales representative. According to the press release, it is “the global sales representative for the show”, and viewers can watch or listen to the programme in its app.
Shetty's previous distribution and sales partner was iHeartMedia. The contract ends in June 2026, and according to the media, iHeartMedia was seeking a four-year extension, but the two sides could not agree on terms. According to Variety, three other bidders offered sums in the nine-figure range. Their joint offer won.
The first joint acquisition of a single creator
For the first time, the two companies are buying an individual creator rather than a finished catalogue. Last year they announced a partnership under which The Ringer's shows, including Bill Simmons, The Zach Lowe Show and The Rewatchables, moved from Spotify to Netflix as video podcasts. That was a licence for an existing catalogue. Shetty is a different case, with exclusive rights to one creator and his live show.
Roman Wasenmüller, VP and Global Head of Podcasts at Spotify, described the deal by saying that “On Purpose has built one of the most engaged podcast audiences in the world, and we're excited to expand our partnership with Netflix and Jay by bringing video episodes to Spotify”.
For Netflix, Lauren Smith, VP of Content Licensing and Programming Strategy, said that “by joining forces with Spotify, we're giving On Purpose an expansive new canvas, bringing these visually captivating interviews to our members' screens”.
Shetty himself spoke of a historic moment and added that “we're entering a new era where interviews can impact culture as powerfully as movies, music and television on the global stage”.
What YouTube is up against
YouTube is currently the largest podcast platform for American listeners. Edison Research's Share of Ear for Q4 2025 found that of the time spent with podcasts, 32% goes to YouTube, 25% to Spotify and 20% to Apple Podcasts. In video podcasting, YouTube also has its own recommendation system and a user base that neither Spotify nor Netflix has caught up with on its own.
Sam Sethi, a commentator at TrueFans.fm, wrote that “It feels like we are going back to 2020 when Spotify had exclusives on its platform. That strategy failed after Spotify spent over $1bn. So why are Netflix and other platforms trying to replicate this strategy?”. The first wave of exclusives was launched by Spotify in 2019.
That era ended in 2024, when Rogan received an open contract and Julie McNamara, head of Spotify's podcast division, left the company.
The difference from the last wave lies in the partner. Risk and access to the audience are now shared with Netflix, which has hundreds of millions of paying viewers and, alongside individual acquisitions, is building its own catalogue of video podcasts. The model rests on the assumption that two large apps with broad user bases can bring audiences where one alone could not.
Rogan and Cooper still top the list
Compared with the largest earlier deals, Shetty's figure is not a record. Joe Rogan's contract extension from February 2024 was valued by Variety at up to $250 million.
Alex Cooper moved Call Her Daddy to SiriusXM in August 2024 for up to $125 million, double her previous contract. What is new in Shetty's case is that there are two buyers instead of one.
Apple is building video into hosting and monetisation
In February 2026 Apple added video podcasts directly to its app, with HLS streaming and dynamic ad insertion, including video host-read ads. Hosting partners at launch were Acast, ART19, Triton Omny Studio and SiriusXM Media.
Apple says distribution remains free for creators and hosts, and that only ad networks pay a fee per impression. It has not yet entered big creator acquisitions. Spotify and Netflix buy content, while Apple offers hosting and a monetisation layer.
A signal for European advertisers
For European brand directors, Shetty's deal is a readable signal about where the advertising inventory on leading podcasters will form in the coming quarters. Spotify, which is one of the main podcast apps in Europe, sells the ads on On Purpose. Netflix brings a paying audience with high engagement. For creators who were until now based on YouTube, the address of the advertising inventory is changing for the first time in years.
The second wave of exclusives looks different from the first. Shared risk, shared audience, advertising sold through Spotify. Whether it works this time will show in July's numbers for On Purpose on both apps, and in how many YouTube listeners are willing to switch.
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