Netflix isn’t just trying to win movie nights anymore. It’s making a broader push for your screen time, your daily scroll, your background noise, and the kind of parasocial, comfort content people usually get from YouTube, Spotify, and TikTok.
Starting in January, the streaming giant will debut its first slate of original video podcasts, marking a clear shift toward creator-led, personality-driven programming. It’s a move that signals Netflix is no longer just competing with Hollywood studios; it’s competing with the internet itself.
The goal is ambitious but straightforward: turn Netflix into a place people visit not only for shows, but for conversation, culture, and weekly habits. Plus, the company is starting with two familiar names: Pete Davidson and Michael Irvin.
Why Is Netflix Getting Into Video Podcasts?
In 2025, more than 700 million hours of podcast content were watched on living room screens, largely driven by YouTube’s dominance in video-first creator formats. At the same time, Spotify and iHeartMedia have poured billions into podcast infrastructure and talent deals, betting that long-form talk content builds deeper loyalty than scripted TV alone.
Netflix doesn’t want to keep licensing that audience. It wants to own it. After quietly bringing in popular podcasts like My Favorite Murder, Dear Chelsea, and shows from The Ringer, Netflix is now shifting toward exclusive originals built specifically for its interface, recommendation engine, and global reach. This isn’t about adding podcasts. It’s about adding habits.
Emmanuel Oyedeji
What Is Pete Davidson’s Netflix Podcast About?
Pete Davidson’s new series, The Pete Davidson Show, premieres January 30 and feels intentionally unpolished, in a good way.
Shot in his garage, the weekly show revolves around loose, candid conversations with friends and collaborators. There’s no desk, no rigid format, and no stage. Just jokes, stories, and whatever comes up.
For Netflix, Davidson represents something deeper than comedy. He brings cultural relevance and intimacy beyond traditional stand-up specials, the kind of presence that fuels YouTube creators and podcast fandoms. New episodes drop every Friday.
What Is Michael Irvin’s Netflix Sports Show?
Michael Irvin’s The White House, launching January 19, takes a different approach. Airing twice a week, the show blends sports news, analysis, debate, and locker-room storytelling, with guest co-hosts including former NFL All-Pro Brandon Marshall.
Rather than chasing highlights or live rights, the series leans into sports culture and conversation, the emotional core of fandom. For Netflix, it’s a way into sports-adjacent content without the cost or complexity of live broadcasting.
Emmanuel Umahi
How Is Netflix Competing With YouTube and Spotify?
YouTube dominates creator intimacy and casual discovery. Spotify owns audio-first loyalty and long-form listening habits. Netflix brings global distribution, production scale, and algorithmic recommendation power. Video podcasts sit at the intersection of all three, and that’s the space Netflix wants to occupy.
Instead of continuing to license popular shows indefinitely, Netflix is building owned intellectual property. The aim is to turn creators into recurring programming and conversations into content ecosystems that live entirely inside Netflix.
In a space where media is increasingly multitasked, podcasts thrive because they’re ambient, habitual, and relationship-driven. Netflix wants that same stickiness, but inside its own app. If this works, video podcasts could shift Netflix from a destination platform into a daily-use one. Long term, the company isn’t just competing with streamers. It’s trying to stand alongside YouTube as a creator home, Spotify as a talk-content hub, and social platforms as a cultural center of gravity.
The real question isn’t whether Pete Davidson or Michael Irvin succeeds. It’s whether Netflix can make personality-led content as bingeable and habitual as its scripted hits.
The Takeaway
With its first original video podcasts, Netflix is making a direct play for creator culture, daily relevance, and conversational media spaces long dominated by YouTube and Spotify. Pete Davidson and Michael Irvin aren’t just hosts, they’re early proof points in a bigger bet: that the future of streaming isn’t only about stories you watch, but voices you live with.
Louis Eriakha
