Forget the Next Netflix: Someone's Trying to Build the Next HBO of Podcasts

I've spent the last eight years with earbuds in more often than not. Driving across New Mexico. Waiting out a flight delay in Lisbon. Walking a trail I probably shouldn't have attempted solo. Podcasts have been my constant companion on the road, and lately I've noticed something shifting.

For years the podcast world chased the Netflix model. More shows. More hours. More content, period. Quantity was the strategy. Throw enough episodes at the wall and hope something sticks with an algorithm.

Now, according to a report making the rounds from USA Today, some companies are chasing a different target entirely. Not the next Netflix. The next HBO.

That's a different game altogether.

Why HBO, Not Netflix?

Think about what made HBO HBO. It wasn't volume. It was The Sopranos. The Wire. A handful of shows so good people would pay just to get access to them. Quality over quantity. A brand you trusted before you even hit play.

That's apparently the bet some podcast companies are making now. Instead of flooding feeds with thousands of mediocre shows, build a smaller catalog of genuinely great ones. Shows worth subscribing for. Shows people talk about at dinner.

Makes sense to me. I've got probably forty podcasts in my app right now, and I actively listen to maybe six. The rest are noise I subscribed to once and never unsubscribed from. Sound familiar?

What This Means for You

Here's the real question: does this change how you find your next favorite show?

If these companies succeed, podcasts stop being this chaotic, anything-goes medium and start looking more like prestige television. Fewer options, but better ones. A tighter curation. Maybe even stuff worth paying a subscription for, the way you pay for HBO Max or Netflix now.

I'm not sure that's entirely good news. Part of what I love about podcasts is that anyone with a microphone and a decent idea can build an audience. No gatekeepers. No studio executive deciding your travel stories about sleeping in airports across six countries aren't "broad enough" for primetime. That's independence in its purest form, and it's exactly the kind of freedom I built my entire life around after 2017, when I packed up and started traveling full-time.

So if the HBO model wins, does that squeeze out the scrappy, independent voices that made podcasting interesting in the first place?

Maybe. Or maybe not. HBO didn't kill independent film. It just created another lane next to it. Both things can exist at once: a handful of polished, big-budget audio dramas with real production values, and millions of weird, niche shows made in someone's spare bedroom. I'd bet that's where this actually lands.

The Bigger Lesson Here

What I find genuinely interesting is the bet itself. These companies are looking at an oversaturated market and deciding the answer isn't more. It's better.

That's a lesson that applies way beyond podcasts. I see it in travel all the time. People think the goal is to visit more countries, check more boxes, rack up more stamps. I used to think that too. But somewhere around my late sixties, I figured out that one slow month in a place I actually love beats five rushed days in five different places I'll barely remember.

Quality over quantity isn't just a content strategy. It's a decent philosophy for how to spend your time, period. Whether that's choosing which shows to listen to, which countries to explore, or how you want to spend the years you've got left, however many that is.

So what happens now? Probably a wave of podcast companies trying to position themselves as the premium option, the trusted name, the one worth paying for. Some will succeed. A lot won't. That's how every new medium shakes out.

In the meantime, I'll keep my forty-podcast subscription list, bloated as it is. But I'm curious to see which shows start earning a reputation good enough to charge admission.

What would you actually pay for in a podcast? That's worth thinking about the next time you hit play.

Source: USA Today

Our last article on this: Fired, Not Finished: IGN's Laid-Off Hosts Launch Their Own Podcast Network