Indie Podcasting's Challenges, Netflix to Produce Video Pods, & More

This is the download from Sounds Profitable, your daily source for the essential news in the business of podcasting. I'm Gavin Gaddis. Here's what you need to know for today, Monday, November 10th. Besides the fact today is Edmund Fitzgerald Wreck Day. A little bit of housekeeping before I get into the top story. Just a quick reminder that tomorrow is Veterans Day and we're going to take the day off for the podcast.

there will be an issue of the download headed to your email inbox. So if you haven't subscribed already, probably get around to that. Anyway, here's our top story. Netflix is getting serious about video podcasts. Last week, we covered several instances of companies being approached by Netflix for video podcast licensing deals that would make full episodes of signed shows exclusive to the platform. Ashley Carman, in her SoundBite newsletter,

added some further context from sources familiar with the matter. According to her sources, the deals are experimental in nature at one year in length and are relatively low in money offered. Some of the larger shows in the conversation likely even make more on their own on the open web than they would in the exclusivity the contract offers.

Lucas Shaw's new Bloomberg piece notes the streamer is following a similar strategy to how it established TV and film production. Netflix got into the TV game in a serious way by licensing existing popular content. while also funding original content. Now, with video podcast content, they're clearly interested in licensing existing stuff in the short term, while Shaw's sources say they're also reaching out to creators.

to make their own original video podcast content explicitly for Netflix. Next up, the independent podcaster report 2025 inside the minds of 558 creators. The podcast host has published the results of their IndiePod survey built from the responses of 558 independent creators with the goal of understanding the current state of independent podcast production.

25% of respondents have been podcasting for less than a year with one to three years experience and not yet having launched, tying for second place with 19%. Meanwhile, three to five years experience. scored 15% of respondents. Excluding pre-launch respondents, the top three biggest challenges for surveyed podcasters are audience engagement, 32%, making money, 39%,

then growing audience and discoverability, 72%. 85% of respondents say their podcast is not making money. Though, as the report notes elsewhere in the survey, only 9% identified revenue and profitability. as a primary measure of success for their show. Profitability didn't crack the top three of the ultimate goal for your podcast section either. As a result, the lower number of profitable podcasts might be a result

of the majority of respondents surveyed not specifically seeking to prioritize monetization. And finally, should shows have production credits? This is from Eric Newsom's newsletter. Everyone working on a podcast should be credited for their work, a sentiment Newsom heartily agrees with, but he also highlights the tradition of ending podcast episodes with a vocal curtain call of everyone involved.

might be harming the overall listenability of podcasts. Rolling credits is a sign to the audience it's time to pick up the remote or unlock your phone and start browsing for something else to consume.

A signal the content is over, accidentally shooing the audience out the door to go find something else, instead of sticking around and letting things roll into the next episode. In an on-demand medium where attention and retention is king, Newsom argues the solution to this structural issue, which itself is a vestigial remnant of broadcast media, is putting credit somewhere prominent outside the audio or video.

As for the rest of the news, Podcast Business Journal has a new interview with DAX U.S. President Brian Conlon about DAX's role in the industry and how in some ways audio measurement is broken. Lemonada Media has signed on both Brains On Universe and Story Pirates as their first foray into kids and family podcast programming. Under the New Deal, Lemonada will oversee ad sales and distribution.

for both the Brains On family of podcasts and Story Pirates podcast. OSHA is celebrating their seventh birthday with a look back at the company's history and what they've accomplished since 2018. Starting in December, The Sam Sanders Show is doubling its cadence to twice weekly episodes on Mondays and Fridays. The new second weekly episode of the podcast will be included as a segment in the weekly broadcast version distributed.

to public radio stations by PRX. Red Seat Ventures is now the production home of Keeping It Real, Conversations with Jillian Michaels. Pushkin Industries and iHeart Podcast have published a new weekly video podcast dubbed... business history. And Insights with Chris Van Vliet has joined the Cumulus Podcast Network, which will handle distribution, marketing, and monetization.

As usual, you can find the links to everything I've just talked about by clicking the link in today's show notes, or you can go to soundsprofitable.com and also subscribe to the newsletter version while you're there. which is the only way you're going to experience tomorrow's episode. I'm creating FOMO right here, right now.

And we're going to break the Newsom protocol. The download is written and produced by myself, Brian Barletta, and Tom Webster. For Sounds Profitable, I'm Gavin Gaddis, and I'll see you, well, tomorrow in your inbox and Wednesday. in the podcast.