Disney+ and Hulu Double Down on Podcasts With Major iHeartMedia Partnership

Disney is continuing to expand what it means to stream.

As the company looks for new ways to diversify the content available across Disney+ and Hulu, podcasts are quickly becoming another major piece of that evolving strategy.

Disney+ and Hulu have announced a new video podcast partnership with iHeartMedia that will bring six established iHeartPodcast titles onto the streaming platforms over the coming months.

And it all starts with some very familiar Disney faces.

Beginning Aug. 14, Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas’ Hey Jonas! will officially make its way to both Disney+ and Hulu, kicking off a larger rollout that will eventually include Pod Meets World, Desperately Devoted, Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald, StraightioLab and Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim.

The move marks another significant expansion of Disney’s growing interest in the podcast space.

Only recently, Disney launched the Disney+ Hulu Throwbacks Podcast, hosted by Good Trouble stars Sherry Cola and Cierra Ramirez. That series directly taps into Disney’s extensive late-’90s and 2000s catalog, allowing the talent behind some of its biggest titles to revisit the movies, music and television that helped define an era for an entire generation.

Now Disney is taking that idea even further.

Rather than podcasts existing separately from the shows and movies audiences are already watching, Disney+ and Hulu are increasingly bringing those conversations directly into the same streaming ecosystem.

For Disney, that creates another way to make its enormous library feel active.

Someone revisiting Boy Meets World can jump into Pod Meets World. Fans making their way back through Scrubs can follow Zach Braff and Donald Faison as they revisit the series through Fake Doctors, Real Friends. Desperate Housewives viewers will eventually be able to return to Wisteria Lane before hearing Teri Hatcher, Andrea Bowen and Emerson Tenney unpack the series through Desperately Devoted.

It transforms the traditional rewatch into something larger.

And Hey Jonas! may be one of the clearest examples of how Disney can use podcasts to connect its past, present and future.

The podcast arrives on Disney+ and Hulu Aug. 14 with an episode centered around Camp Rock, perfectly timed alongside the streaming premiere of Camp Rock 3. Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas will then continue the podcast from D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event with additional episodes recorded live during the weekend.

That gives Disney another piece of content capable of supporting a major franchise moment while also tapping directly into the nostalgia surrounding the original movies.

It is a strategy that makes plenty of sense as Disney continues looking beyond traditional movies and television to keep audiences engaged.

Video podcasts don’t replace those formats. Instead, they give viewers another reason to remain inside Disney’s platforms after the credits roll. A movie can lead into a podcast. A classic television series can become a rewatch experience. Talent associated with a beloved property can reconnect with the audience years after the original project ended.

And Disney already has plenty to build from.

Its existing podcast lineup includes The Mess Around with Hannah and Lamorne, Prison Breaking With Sarah and Paul and That Was Us, alongside companion podcasts tied to current programming including Paradise, American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, FX’s The Shards and Love Story: John F. Kennedy Jr. & Carolyn Bessette.

Licensed podcasts including Handsome and We’re Here to Help have also joined the mix.

With iHeartMedia now entering the picture, that library is only getting bigger.

Pod Meets World will arrive on Disney+ Aug. 24, bringing Danielle Fishel, Will Friedle and Rider Strong’s long-running podcast into the same streaming home as Boy Meets World. After spending years revisiting all seven seasons, the trio’s newest chapter moves beyond the traditional episode-by-episode format to explore more of their friendship, shared ’90s experiences and conversations with guests.

Over on Hulu, Desperately Devoted arrives Nov. 2 with Teri Hatcher, Andrea Bowen and Emerson Tenney revisiting Desperate Housewives from three very different perspectives.

Fake Doctors, Real Friends with Zach and Donald, StraightioLab and Thanks Dad with Ego Nwodim will follow later this fall.

The expansion also shows how Disney+ and Hulu are gradually becoming more than destinations for conventional scripted and unscripted programming.

Between movies, series, live programming, short-form content and now a growing collection of video podcasts, Disney is experimenting with different ways audiences consume entertainment while still using the company’s strongest advantage: the worlds, stories and talent people already have a connection with.

And podcasts offer something particularly useful within that strategy.

They can turn nostalgia into an ongoing conversation, give older catalog titles renewed relevance and create another entry point for younger viewers discovering those stories for the first time.

For longtime fans, it is another way to go back.

For everyone else, it might be their introduction.

With Hey Jonas! arriving Aug. 14 and an expanding slate following behind it, Disney’s push into podcasting is looking less like an experiment and increasingly like another permanent piece of its streaming future.