Netflix has visited the farm once again.
The streamer and Spotify have together poached Jay Shetty and his longtime life coaching/motivational podcast On Purpose for an exclusive multiyear deal that’s reportedly worth ~$100 million.
According to Variety, there were three other companies bidding for On Purpose, each of them willing to pay nine figures. Shetty and On Purpose were previously locked down with iHeartMedia; that three-year deal ended in March. iHeartMedia was reportedly seeking a four-year renewal, but it and Shetty couldn’t agree on terms.
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If you’re somehow unfamiliar with Shetty, he’s built an audience of ~70 million people by pitching himself as a former business student who underwent “a journey of transformation” after living with monks in India for three years. That journey resulted in him deciding to dedicate himself to “a life of service, impact, fulfillment, and passion.”
He’s been posting motivational content since 2016, and though his monk story has faced scrutiny and he’s also been accused of scraping and reposting other people’s content without credit, he clearly continues to be a hot commodity among distributors.
Shetty started On Purpose in 2019, and since then has posted more than 800 episodes totaling over a billion views across platforms. He’s welcomed guests like Michelle Obama, Oprah, Madonna, Joe Biden, Emma Watson, Selena Gomez, Will Smith, Tom Holland, Kim Kardashian, Tom Hanks, and the late Kobe Bryant.
On YouTube, the show has racked up 5.6 million subscribers for Shetty’s dedicated podcast channel, which brings about ~15 million views a month. When YouTube launched its podcast charts in May 2025, On Purpose debuted at #55; it’s now at #89.
Soon it might drop off the charts entirely, though: Netflix and Spotify’s deal with Shetty–like their deals with some other creators–prevents him from uploading new episodes to Google’s platform.
Folks who want to tune in to On Purpose for the next few years will only be able to find the video version on Netflix. The audio-only version will live on Spotify.
It’s possible that Shetty might post clips/Shorts from these exclusive episodes (we’re not sure what the Netflix/Spotify deal says about that), but YouTube is officially no longer the home for his show.
“We’re entering a new era where interviews can impact culture as powerfully as movies, music and television on the global stage,” Shetty said in a statement. “It is truly a dream come true to be partnering with Netflix and Spotify at the same time. I would never have believed when I started the podcast just seven years ago this would happen. To be in business with two of the most influential forces in global entertainment is unprecedented, and I couldn’t be more energized for what’s ahead.”
Lauren Smith, Netflix’s VP of Content Licensing and Programming Strategy, added that by “joining forces” with Spotify, Netflix is “giving ‘On Purpose’ an expansive new canvas, bringing these visually captivating interviews to our members’ screens with unmissable episodes to look forward to every single week.”
This deal is the latest in a long line of Netflix creator scoops, and part of its increasingly focused push into podcast content. (It just expanded its deal with long-running morning radio show The Breakfast Club—a first step into daily real-time programming syndication.)
That push has come with tension. Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos has expressed many a thought about YouTube; we’re used to that. But now that Spotify is Netflix’s partner in these deals, its executives are getting snappy too.
Back in February, Bill Simmons, who joined Netflix as its Head of Talk Strategy after it acquired his podcast network The Ringer, said YouTube has an “attitude,” and that posting content there is a trade-off.
“With YouTube, you’re trading off something for something every time, but Netflix actually cares about having us on the platform. They’re promoting us. We’re working with them. We’re innovating with them,” he said. “YouTube has kind of this attitude, like, ‘You’re lucky to be on YouTube,’ which congrats to them, but I’m not sure how long that’s sustainable.”
