YouTube is offering popular podcasts $50,000 in cash to turn them into videos

YouTube is still gearing up for a big podcast push. After hiring a podcasting executive last year, YouTube is now offering money to popular podcasts that want to move to video.

Bloomberg reports that YouTube’s content promotion results in “offers of $50,000 for individual shows and $200,000 and $300,000 for podcast networks.”The report says these “grants”are meant to help with the high start-up costs of video production, which requires cameras, lighting, a studio, and a host of other equipment that you don’t need just to create sound.

Companies are obsessed with growth, and when it comes to traditional online video viewing, it’s hard to imagine YouTube getting even bigger. A more plausible solution to positive user rates is that YouTube sees more ways to use the service beyond just video views. What if more people used YouTube to listen to music or stream games live? It is the mindset that brings us all these new verticals.

YouTube is already home to a ton of popular podcasts, and Spotify’s $100 million luxury deal for the Joe Rogan Experience took the podcast off YouTube and made it exclusive to Spotify. No wonder podcasts will get full vertical treatment next time.