Netflix has been carrying podcasts for about a year. It is already a bigger podcast platform, by name recognition, than the company that gave the medium its name.

In its first year carrying podcasts, Netflix was named by 21% of podcast consumers as a platform they had used in the past 12 months, placing it third behind YouTube (63%) and Spotify (33%), and ahead of Apple Podcasts (15%). That's from Part One of Sounds Profitable's Podcast Landscape 2026, the annual study of how Americans consume podcasts, based this year on a census-weighted survey of 5,473 US adults fielded in August 2026, published October 1.

There's a sharper version of the same stat. NetInfluencer's write-up of the data notes Apple Podcasts came in fifth at 15%, behind YouTube Music's 17%.

Named is not the same as used

Before anyone rewrites their distribution strategy: just 5% identified Netflix as their most-used podcast platform. YouTube held steady as the top choice at 40%, while Spotify slipped slightly from 18% to 17%.

Sounds Profitable also flagged a methodology wrinkle worth knowing: the 2026 survey added Netflix, Tubi, Apple TV, and HBO Max as response options, which mechanically dilutes the other choices somewhat.

So Netflix is a place people have encountered a podcast, not yet a place they live. For a coach with a show, that distinction is the whole story — and it's still bad news for the old playbook.

The medium stopped being audio

The trend underneath the Netflix number is the one that actually touches your production budget. Video consumption keeps growing — 44% of consumers watched a video podcast in the past week, up from 40%, and only 17% of Americans still expect a podcast to be audio-only. Meanwhile the share of consumers who call a podcast-native app their most-used platform fell from 19% to 15%.

If you're recording into a USB mic with no camera, you are producing for a shrinking minority of the audience's expectations.

The gatekeeper problem

Here's the part that should bother anyone who got into podcasting because nobody could stop you. Sounds Profitable framed it as a question in a companion piece: "Podcasting was built without gatekeepers, so what does it mean when the third biggest place people find podcasts is gated?"

You can submit an RSS feed to Apple Podcasts this afternoon. You cannot submit anything to Netflix. Its podcast catalogue arrived via deals — in October 2025, Netflix and Spotify agreed a video podcast distribution deal covering 17 properties.

Which means the third-biggest name on the list is one you cannot reach by being good. Only by being signed.

One more number for show owners

Among monthly podcast listeners, 24% regularly follow three shows, 26% follow two, and 15% follow only one — 65% of monthly listeners regularly follow three shows or fewer.

The audience isn't growing its appetite. It's refreshing: 34% say they began listening less than a year ago, up from 28% in 2025.

New ears, almost no spare slots. That's the market your show is launching into.