True Crime Podcasts Just Found a New Home: Your TV

Ever notice how the lines between podcast, TV show, and streaming series have basically disappeared? I have. And a new deal between PAVE Studios and Disney is proof the blending is only speeding up.

Starting this month, two of PAVE Studios' video podcasts are landing exclusively on Disney Plus and Hulu. Not forever, just for a limited window. But it's the first time any of PAVE's shows have made it onto a major streaming platform, and that's a bigger deal than it sounds.

Here's the setup. Clues, hosted by Kaelyn Moore, drops on Disney Plus starting October 20th. It's a true crime show built around the small, overlooked details that crack big cases. New episodes come out weekly, and here's the interesting twist: they'll air a full day before showing up anywhere else, including the usual podcast apps. Clues already has some credibility behind it too. It's a Crime House Original and it's won a Webby Award.

Then on November 9th, Mother Knows Murder joins the lineup. This one's hosted by actress Niecy Nash and her daughter Dia Nash, and it's got a much looser, conversational feel. Picture a mother and daughter just talking through real crime cases the way you'd talk about them over coffee. Same early-access setup applies. Disney and Hulu viewers get it a day before everyone else.

So why does a podcast need a streaming deal at all? Isn't that what podcast apps are for?

That's exactly the question Kaelyn Moore seems to have been asking from the start. She said Clues was built with a streaming audience in mind from day one, aiming for production quality that could sit next to anything else on Disney Plus. In other words, this wasn't a podcast dressed up for video. It was designed to compete with prestige television from the beginning.

Max Cutler, the founder and CEO of PAVE Studios, put it simply. He said he built Crime House to be a brand that travels, one that can live anywhere audiences happen to be watching. For him, this Disney and Hulu deal isn't the finish line. It's proof the model works, and he's expecting these shows to keep showing up in new places after this.

I find that idea genuinely interesting. For years we treated podcasts, video shows, and streaming series like separate categories. Different budgets, different audiences, different rules. Turns out the audience never cared about those boundaries. They just want good stories, wherever they happen to be scrolling.

I think about this a lot when I'm on the road. I've been traveling full-time since 2017, and the way I consume content has changed constantly along with it. Some nights it's a podcast through earbuds on a long drive. Other nights it's the exact same creators showing up as a full video show on a hotel TV. The format shifts, but a good story doesn't care what screen you're watching it on.

That's really the lesson here. If you're a creator, your audience isn't locked into one platform anymore, and maybe it never should have been. If you're a listener, don't be surprised when your favorite podcast host turns up somewhere new. The smart ones are already asking "what happens if we put this in front of a completely different audience?" and then just trying it.

PAVE Studios didn't wait around wondering if podcasts belonged on Disney Plus. They built a show good enough to find out. Clues goes live October 20th, Mother Knows Murder follows November 9th, and both will eventually make their way back to the regular podcast platforms, just a day behind the streaming crowd.

So here's my question for you. Where else do you think podcasts end up next? Because if this experiment works, it won't be the last one.

Source: PodcastingToday

Catch up on our earlier post: Podcasting Grew Up and Started Sounding Like the Radio It Was Supposed to Replace