Netflix Hires Apple Podcasts Veteran Steve Wilson to Lead Podcast Push

Netflix has hired Steve Wilson to lead its podcast content acquisitions, Variety has confirmed. Wilson takes the role on a contract basis, arriving as the streamer pushes deeper into video podcasts — a catalog that now tops 60 titles.

Wilson brings a long résumé in audio. He spent 15 years at Apple, most recently heading marketing for Apple Podcasts, where he worked directly with podcasters and networks. He left Apple in December 2020, then served nearly six years as chief strategy officer at the podcast studio QCode (a company known for scripted celebrity audio fiction). His most recent post was the same position at Daylight Media.

What is Netflix actually offering?

The streamer's original video-podcast lineup, as reported in September, includes:

• "Murder With My Husband" — a true-crime show
• "The Pete Davidson Show" — a talk show hosted by the "Saturday Night Live" alum
• "Shut Up Evan" — a pop-culture interview show hosted by Evan Ross Katz
• "The Puzzle Room With David Kwong" — a puzzle-focused format
• "Allegedly" — a true-crime podcast from NBC News correspondent Ellison Barber

Netflix has kept expanding this catalog, and Wilson's hire signals that acquisitions — not just in-house production — are now part of the plan.

Why the timing looks awkward

Wilson joins two weeks after Netflix announced layoffs affecting 6% of its workforce, about 1,000 jobs. It was the company's biggest round of cuts to date, hitting product, technology, legal and HR teams hardest, according to an email to employees from co-CEOs Ted Sarandos and Greg Peters.

"Our mission — to entertain the world — is ambitious, and delivering on it requires us to be disciplined about where we prioritize our people and resources," the co-CEOs wrote in the memo, a copy of which Variety obtained.

The same period saw Netflix oust several top executives:

• Bela Bajaria, chief content officer
• Dan Lin, head of film, and his top lieutenant Doug Belgrad
• Carolina Garcia, director of original series

Veteran TV executive Peter Rice replaced Bajaria.

Addressing the content-side leadership change on the Q3 2026 earnings call, Sarandos said: "I know that we could do better, and we want to build on that momentum."

What does this change for podcasting?

For podcasters and networks, it's straightforward: there's now a named buyer inside Netflix whose job is cutting licensing deals. A former platform marketer turned studio strategist is now sitting on the other side of the table, deciding what gets picked up.

For Netflix, the bet is that video podcasts — cheap to license relative to scripted originals — can add catalog volume at a moment when the company is cutting 1,000 jobs and trimming executive ranks. Whether Wilson's contract role becomes a permanent build-out will say a lot about how serious the streamer is about the format.