If you needed more proof that video podcasts are the new talk show, here it is: Oprah Winfrey is coming to Amazon.
The tech giant said on Monday that it had reached a multiyear licensing deal with Ms. Winfrey. The former doyenne of daytime talk will produce twice-a-week video podcasts beginning this summer, create specials focused on her Favorite Things and Book Club labels, and repurpose the 25-season library from The Oprah Winfrey Show.
The deal is similar in scope to the $100 million agreement Amazon reached in 2024 for Jason and Travis Kelce’s podcast “New Heights,” and signifies the company’s growing ambitions in video podcasts.
“This is the ultimate validation of where the world is going,” said Steve Boom, an Amazon vice president. “You have the most influential talk show host in history, by orders of magnitude, leaning heavily into this new world. Now we see where the world is going and we at Amazon are just happy to be along for the ride.”
The move represents a significant third act for the Ms. Winfrey, 72, who in the past few years has dabbled in podcasting with “The Oprah Podcast” channel on YouTube while pursuing other endeavors including producing “The Color Purple” film for Warner Bros. and sharing her weight loss journey while on GLP-1 drugs.
Her podcast channel, which she started at the end of 2024, has a subscriber base of 913,000. It features weekly interviews with celebrities, book authors and other influencers and is produced by her company, Harpo Entertainment. The show’s format with Amazon will remain the same.
The episodes, which usually run close to an hour, often generate over 1 million views. Some, like her interview with the billionaire beauty entrepreneur Anastasia Soare, attracted 5 million.
Those shows will still be available on YouTube, as will all her new content. But beginning in July, the video podcasts will also be available across Amazon’s services including Prime Video, Amazon Music, Fire TV Channels and Audible. Amazon executives are hopeful that the popularity of her podcast will get supercharged as a result.
“Hosting this podcast allows me to continue the work I feel called to do — opening the door for conversations that matter,” Ms. Winfrey said in a statement. “Expanding our reach globally is an opportunity I embrace, as we continue to connect through stories that invite new ways of seeing, and hopefully deepen, understanding.”
In August, Amazon split its podcast company, Wondery, into two businesses. It put scripted audio shows under its Audible division and all talk-show style video podcasts, like Dax Shepherd’s popular ”Armchair Expert” and “New Heights,” at a newly named division called Creator Services.
The shows under Creator Services are being marketed in many different ways across Amazon’s various channels and businesses. For Ms. Winfrey, that will include a landing page on Amazon.com for her Favorite Things franchise, an annual holiday list of some of her favorite products. Sales and advertising revenue will be shared between Ms. Winfrey and the streaming giant.
In addition, Amazon’s plans to promote Ms. Winfrey’s popular book club, which has its 30th anniversary in September. Amazon executives think that between Audible, Kindle, Amazon.com and Goodreads, the company can expand the reach of her club even further.
“In a world of a lot of politics and division, Oprah seems to be this unifying voice that everybody can agree on,” said Matt Sandler, the general manager of Creator Services. “So that’s really what we want to figure out, how do we get that to more people.”
Ms. Winfrey’s original talk show, which ran for 25 seasons September 1986 to May 2011, was the pre-eminent home for people to confess their sins (James Frey) or announce their triumphs (Tom Cruise). It was the most successful talk show in syndication, regularly generating a daily audience of seven million people and it launched Oprah’s Favorite Things, the phrase “You get a car” and, for better or worse, the careers of Dr. Oz and Dr. Phil.
The two parties haven’t yet figured out how the old talk show episodes will be used. But Mr. Sandler said he imagined a lot of different possibilities: from clipping together interviews she’s done on a particular subject to rereleasing an interview with an influential figure who’s returned to the current culture.
“I think the beauty of the back catalog is that there are so many rich moments that mean so many things to different people,” he said.
Nicole Sperling covers Hollywood and the streaming industry. She has been a reporter for more than two decades.
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