Picture via Netflix
Netflix’s podcast library has quietly picked up its most unusual addition yet. Acquired: The History of Seinfeld, the latest episode of Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal’s hugely popular business podcast, is now streaming on Netflix; it arrived within hours of the episode going out on Acquired’s own feeds and comes exclusively with video, something that was left out on the YouTube feed.
It’s a somewhat timely addition given Netflix renewed its Seinfeld deal with Sony Pictures Television in August, keeping the sitcom through 2031. Two months later, it’s streaming a 230-minute breakdown of how the show was built, who got rich from it, and why tens of millions of people are still watching it three decades after the finale.
Picture: Sony Pictures Television
What Is Acquired?
Acquired launched in 2015 as a side project from two Seattle venture capitalists and has since become one of the biggest podcasts in the world, claiming over a million listeners per episode. Each episode tells the full story of a single company, and they are long. Two to four hours is normal, and the hosts describe the format as a “conversational audiobook.” Recent subjects include The Home Depot, Disney, Rolex, and Costco, and the show has sold out the Chase Center with Mark Zuckerberg and Radio City Music Hall with Jamie Dimon as guests.
The Seinfeld episode went out on Sunday, October 18th, 2026, billed as the story of “TV’s last great startup.” Expect plenty on Castle Rock, the syndication rules that decided who owned what, the $100 million-plus NBC offer for a tenth season that Jerry Seinfeld turned down, and the streaming deals that followed.
This particular episode runs 3 hours and 50 minutes, and as mentioned, Netflix’s version of the podcast has a leg up on YouTube given that you can see Gilbert and Rosenthal, as compared with the YouTube video, which is just audio. No clips of Seinfeld are featured, though sadly; it is just two chaps talking into a microphone at the end of the day, but still, it’s a reason to watch it on Netflix over listening elsewhere.
It’s also interesting in that it’s done as a companion of sorts, almost like The Culture Edit collection (Netflix’s collaboration with digital publishers to bring their video feeds to the streamer). Whether this is a one-off or more are on the way is unclear.
Netflix has been dabbling in podcasts and YouTube adjacent content for nearly a year now. The January launch brought shows from The Ringer, iHeartMedia, and Barstool, and since then growth has come from more of the same, plus a reported $100 million joint deal with Spotify for Jay Shetty’s On Purpose and a run of official companion podcasts for Netflix’s own shows. Netflix’s US library now sits at over 70 video podcasts.
Netflix’s push into this arena has been criticized, but as we laid out in our look at whether Netflix’s podcast era will stick, podcasts are relatively cheap, they fill quiet daytime hours, and they add ad inventory. Whether the plan is working nearly a year on is up for debate. Seinfeld, meanwhile, remains enormous. Sony says nearly 60 million Americans watched at least a minute of it in the first half of 2026, and our engagement report tool puts it at 1.816 billion hours viewed globally since 2023.
Will you be watching Acquired’s Seinfeld episode on Netflix? Let us know in the comments.