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AIPROPX ReportForbes · 2h ago
The Highest-Paid Podcasters Of 2026
With streaming services entering the marketplace for shows, the lines between podcaster, TV host and internet creator have never been blurrier—and the paydays have never been bigger. W hen Jay Shetty started his podcast On Purpose in 2019, he remembers people telling him he was too late. The medium was already saturated, they said, with little room for growth. And wasn’t he really just a content creator?
Seven years later, the 38-year-old self-help guru hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the world, competing not only with the biggest TV, radio and internet-native talk shows but blurring the lines between them entirely. Just as many people watch his lengthy interviews with celebrities (including Michelle Obama and Matt Damon) on YouTube as listen on the iHeartMedia network—distribution deals that Forbes estimates paid Shetty $21 million over the past 12 months. And when those deals expired this year, Shetty landed a new kind of contract, in which the audio and video of his show will not only be distributed by Spotify; it will also stream on Netflix, with the two companies combining to pay him an estimated $100 million over the next three years.
“When I started, video wasn’t normal for a podcast,” Shetty tells Forbes . “Now we had the four largest streamers bidding for the show. To see that kind of interest and enthusiasm was pretty amazing—for me and for the industry overall.”
The impressive thing about megadeals like Shetty’s is that unlike the makers of movies, TV or other forms of entertainment, podcasters retain ownership of their show’s underlying IP, meaning networks and platforms are paying millions just to license it as a distributor and ad sales partner for a set number of years. That’s one reason why premium streaming giants like Netflix, Hulu and Tubi had largely ignored the industry’s rise over the past decade, allowing YouTube to grow into the largest podcasting platform in the world. But beginning in 2025, hoping to cut into YouTube’s dominance over engagement time, the streamers have made a splashy entrance.
Industry dealmakers say that after Netflix’s initial $1 million to $2 million bids for top podcasts were roundly rejected, the streamer adopted a strategy similar to the one it used previously to capture market share in scripted television—overpaying to lure talent away from incumbent platforms. Offers of $10 million or more per year (on a one- or two-year trial term) eventually convinced marquee shows from Spotify, iHeart and Barstool Sports to sign on. Goalhanger, a U.K.-based podcast network, reportedly landed $19 million from Netflix to stream just 40 episodes of its daily talk show The Rest Is Football during the World Cup.
“We think about video podcasts like a modern talk show,” Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said during the company’s earnings call earlier this year. “But instead of having a single brand-defined show, you have hundreds of them.”
Yet podcasts are ascendant because of their inherent differences from traditional television. They are much cheaper to produce, can run year-round and make the bulk of their money from host-read advertisements inserted into the audio and video recordings. For the highest-end shows, brands will pay premium prices for a trusted host’s personal endorsement, or to target their audience’s specific demographic.
Joe Rogan reigns as the world’s highest-paid podcaster by pairing deep listener trust with massive scale, releasing around 15 episodes per month and attracting more than 80 million downloads and views, according to one data provider. In 2024, Spotify rewarded him with a new three-year contract that could reach $250 million.
For most podcasters, landing a $100 million–plus deal like Shetty’s from one of the major networks—mainly Spotify, SiriusXM or iHeart—is still the ultimate prize. Deals are paid out as a guaranteed advance, with a revenue sharing model in place for any additional profits generated above this break-even point, but competition between networks is what drives the guarantees above $30 million per year for a select handful of elite talent. At that rate, ad sales are unlikely to make back much profit for networks on the shows, if any. “In theory,” says one top talent lawyer, “if the client earns out, you’ve made a bad deal.”
Still, networks justify their biggest deals in other ways, including subscriber acquisition, attracting blue-chip sponsorships and using talent as brand ambassadors. For example, Wondery’s top podcasters, New Heights hosts Jason and Travis Kelce, appeared on a panel for parent company Amazon at the Cannes Lions festival in June.
Talent, meanwhile, are using their megadeals and IP control to create mini-networks of shows under their umbrella, such as Alex Cooper’s Unwell at SiriusXM or Charlamagne Tha God’s Black Effect Podcast Network at iHeart. These networks allow the talent to generate additional revenue by requiring sponsors to advertise across their slate to earn placement on the main show. To date, however, it’s been difficult for these talent-led networks to generate new hits, and because they have to pay all production and overhead costs out of pocket, several companies have seen layoffs (Crooked) and high turnover (Unwell). Independent networks, such as Steven Bartlett’s Flight Story or The Joe Budden Network , have had more success building incrementally.
Even in the best circumstances, the companies exist less for the cash flow they can generate and more for the asset they can become. Bill Simmons sold his podcast network, The Ringer, to Spotify in 2020 for an estimated $200 million, and Conan O’Brien did the same two years later, getting some $150 million from SiriusXM. In April, OpenAI acquired the tech-focused show TBPN for an estimated $150 million in cash and stock, which Forbes estimates netted its hosts, John Coogan and Jordi Hays, nearly $70 million.
Shetty is taking a slightly different approach with his production company, Perfect Strangers, inve...
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