How Can I Get My Podcast on Netflix?

Netflix has spent 2026 adding video podcasts at a rapid clip, and if you make one, it’s natural to wonder how you get yours on there. So here’s the straight answer, before the details: you can’t, at least not by applying. There’s no submission page, no pitch form, and no path for an independent show to put itself forward. Netflix adds podcasts through exclusive deals it negotiates directly, and it’s the one doing the reaching out.

That’s not a knock on your show. It’s just how the program is built, and understanding it is more useful than chasing a door that doesn’t exist.

The Short Answer: There’s No Submission Process

Netflix started carrying video podcasts in early 2026 and now hosts more than 50 of them, all through deals rather than open submissions. The arrangements have been with major partners: Spotify, The Ringer, iHeartMedia, and Barstool Sports, plus established creators and a reported $100 million deal with Jay Shetty. According to Tubefilter’s reporting, Netflix has been actively sending requests to talent agents to sign more podcasters, which tells you which direction the courting runs: Netflix reaches out to representation, not the other way around.

The deals also come with strings that make clear this is a curated, professional arrangement, not a self-serve platform. Netflix asks creators to deliver finished episodes in advance rather than uploading whenever they like, asks them to drop some brand sponsorships, and in podcast deals like the Barstool and Ringer ones, limits how many clips creators can post on YouTube. The audio versions generally stay available everywhere people already listen, on Apple, Spotify, and elsewhere, while Netflix holds the exclusive video window.

The short version: this is Netflix buying access to shows that already have big audiences, on terms it sets. It is not a stage open to newcomers.

Why Netflix Is Doing This: The Fight With YouTube

The reason Netflix is spending on podcasts has little to do with discovering new talent and everything to do with YouTube. Video podcasts are one of the fastest-growing formats in media, and YouTube dominates them, which makes those shows exactly the kind of content Netflix wants in order to compete for watch time.

The rivalry has gotten openly combative. In August 2026, Bloomberg reported that YouTube is offering top creators millions of dollars to keep uploading exclusively to YouTube and turn Netflix down. As Tubefilter and Podnews covered the story, YouTube has in some cases guaranteed creators a share of major platform-wide brand deals, or even offered to help finance their productions, and has reportedly retaliated against creators who sign with Netflix by leaving them out of marketing campaigns and brand-deal revenue. After more than a year of Netflix poaching top YouTube creators, the two giants are now bidding against each other for the same names.

All of that underlines who the money is chasing: creators who are already big. It’s a bidding war over established names, not a hunt for new ones, which is exactly why there’s no open door for an up-and-coming show to walk through.

Can Independent Podcasters Get On? Realistically, No

Could an independent show ever end up on Netflix? Maybe someday, but there’s no real precedent for it yet, and it wouldn’t happen by planning for it. The money follows existing pull: celebrities, creators already in Netflix’s orbit, shows with agencies behind them, and podcasts already pulling large audiences. One podcaster who runs a production company put it well in a thread on the topic: it’s worth separating “opportunity exists” from “opportunity is accessible,” because for most independent podcasters, a Netflix deal “isn’t something you can realistically plan for or position yourself toward in any direct way.” Plenty of creators are already professional, polished, and consistent and still never get near that conversation, because access at that level is narrow by design.

So being good is necessary but not sufficient. The thing that actually gets Netflix’s attention is an audience big enough that a deal is low-risk for them, and that is built over years on platforms where you can grow directly.

The Honest Advice: Take Netflix Off Your List

The most useful thing you can do about getting on Netflix is to stop thinking about it. There’s no action that moves you toward a deal, no pitch to send and no box to check, so treating Netflix as a goal only burns energy you could spend on the show itself.

What you can control is building a podcast worth watching on the platforms that are actually open to you (YouTube most of all, with Spotify, Apple, and more now carrying video too). That’s where audiences get built, and a real audience is the only thing that ever puts a show on anyone’s radar, Netflix included. If a deal ever comes, it comes as a result of that work, never as a substitute for it.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Bottom Line

You can’t get your podcast on Netflix by asking, and it’s worth saving your energy from chasing a submission process that doesn’t exist. Netflix buys exclusive video from shows that already have big audiences, largely to compete with YouTube for watch time, and it approaches creators through their agents rather than the reverse. The only realistic route runs through building a real audience elsewhere first, and the only part fully in your hands is making a video podcast worth watching. Get that right and you’re doing the thing that matters, whether or not Netflix ever calls.