Will Netflix’s $100 million Jay Shetty deal allow it to upstream YouTube?

Netflix and Jay Shetty have kicked off a distribution strategy that challenges YouTube’s identity as the first window for creator content. Starting today, new episodes of Shetty’s On Purpose podcast won’t be available on YouTube. Instead, the exclusivity for those eps will be shared between Netflix and Spotify.

Last month, Netflix and Spotify announced a deal to bring Shetty’s hit podcast — which ranks among the top ten health and wellness podcasts on the Apple charts — to their respective platforms. Though the terms of the deal were not confirmed, Variety estimated that Shetty’s exclusivity deal was worth $100 million.

The terms related to YouTube are particularly intriguing. The five million subscribers on Shetty’s YouTube hub will be able to access archival episodes of On Purpose and clips from new releases, but to watch the latest video versions of the creator’s hit podcast, those fans will need to visit either Netflix or Spotify.

With the Shetty deal, Netflix is looking to answer a question that has vexed media companies for years: Is there any way to break YouTube’s hold on the first window for creator content? Obviously, some streamers go live on Twitch before posting related VODs elsewhere, but many YouTube subscribers have conditioned themselves to visit their favorite channels first when they want to check for new videos.

Way back in 2014, Vessel tried to become the new first window for top creators by paying them millions for early access to their new videos. YouTube’s counter-offers fended off that challenge. More recently, creators have made videos available for backers on Patreon before posting those clips to YouTube, but YouTube’s own Top Fans publishing option

Netflix’s Jay Shetty strategy takes early access to another level by removing new uploads from YouTube. It’s an extreme, expensive strategy that conditions YouTube subscribers to see a different platform as the first window, but if Netflix really wants to be the home of creators, $100 million might be the price it has to pay.

In other cases, Netflix is making deals with YouTube standouts without separating them from their subscribers. Its deal with The Stokes Twins brought the duo’s archive to Netflix without removing it from YouTube. For its pact with Alan Chikin Chow, Netflix is existing alongside YouTube as the first window. New Alan’s Universe videos will drop on Netflix the same day they hit YouTube.

The bloated, long-delayed final season of Stranger Things showed that Netflix needs to stay nimble if it wants its content to make noise in the pop culture zeitgeist. Deals with creators let Netflix offer a wider variety of daily programming, and exclusivity deals bring attention to those offerings. I’m not sure whether the future of Netflix’s creator deals will look more like the Jay Shetty exclusivity agreement or the Alan Chikin Chow day-and-date deal, but either way, YouTube’s hold on the creator economy’s first window is not as secure as it once was.