Every few months, the podcast industry rediscovers its favourite hobby: arguing about what a podcast actually is.
Thanks to Pete Davidson’s new “podcast” on Netflix, here we are again, restarting the debate with the enthusiasm of conspiracy theorists waiting for Joe Rogan to mention aliens again.
Netflix launched The Pete Davidson Show as part of what is being described as the platforms “podcast era”. The reaction was instant. Vulture wondered if it was “a podcast or just cheap TV” whilst Indy100 reported fans pointing out the obvious: if it only exists on Netflix, is video-only and doesn’t use RSS… isn’t it just… a talk show?
It’s a fair question. By every traditional definition, a podcast is audio-first and distributed via RSS. Pete’s show is neither. In fact, much of the commentary was the same, pondering the delivery method rather than the content.
The thing is, we’ve been here before.
And before.
And before that.
The debate never went away, it just hibernates occasionally until the next celebrity video series wakes it up.
Technically, yes, podcasts have long been defined by audio delivered via RSS. That’s the historical DNA. In April 2025, Oxford Road and Edison Research attempted to give the industry a shared language again with their landmark “What Is A Podcast” white paper.
They defined a podcast as an on-demand, audio‑driven, episodic spoken‑word programme, and introduced a definition of video podcasts where visuals “meaningfully shape the experience.” Their goal was simple: eliminate the industry’s definitional ambiguity so advertisers could confidently invest billions into the space. Their research was comprehensive with thousands surveyed, dozens of execs interviewed. The conclusion was beautifully distilled: if a programme works with your eyes closed, it’s a podcast.
As an industry, we love precision and structure (and don’t get me wrong, we absolutely need it) but the fundamental issue is WE (the industry) are not the ones who get to decide what a podcast is. The audience will. They always do. Hoover didn’t ask permission to become a verb. Google didn’t run focus groups to become shorthand for “look it up.” Listeners will call something a podcast if it feels like a podcast.
Feelings are messy and hard to define.
Which means the question “Is this a podcast?” is increasingly irrelevant. Far more important is: How do we serve creators? How do we meet audiences where they actually are? And how do we grow the value of the content ecosystem as a whole?
At Sport Social, we stopped limiting the definition a long time ago. Yes, audio is our heritage and still core to what we do, but creators today don’t live in one format. They run fully-fledged content ecosystems: audio, video, social, live events, branded content, and whatever comes next. In 2025 our commercial strategy reflected exactly that, helping podcasters unlock value across platforms with host reads, branded segments, YouTube, Spotify video, social-first activations, live experiences and more.
For our 700+ creators, including Premier League clubs, indie storytellers, super-fans, the question isn’t “What is a podcast?”. The question is: “How do we return full value for the content they make?”
If that value comes from audio, brilliant. If it comes from video? Great. If it comes from social or live shows? Even better. Increasingly, it need not be audio at all.
So maybe it’s time we retired the endless “what counts as a podcast” debate. Not because the technical arguments aren’t valid (they absolutely are) but because the audience will ultimately make the call for us. Our job isn’t to fight that tide. Our job is to adapt to it, lead it, and make sure creators are properly rewarded wherever their content goes.