This week Colin and I discuss the latest Nielsen The Gauge data from August, showing that YouTube’s share of TV time has jumped again, to a record 15.8%. That’s up from 14.2% in July, 2026 and 13.1% in August, 2025. Every other streaming service’s share was down or flat in August except Tubi’s, which was up modestly.

Also noteworthy in August is that YouTube’s share is now 90% of all of broadcast’s share, which is up from 69% of all of broadcast’s share a year ago. At this pace it’s possible that YouTube’s share will exceed all of broadcast’s in the next 6-12 months. 

We also discuss Peacock’s flatlined subscriber growth, Disney’s multiplatform Super Bowl plans and more. 

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This week Colin and I discuss research from Bango showing short-form video’s increasing importance. Next up - more activity driving YouTube’s ecosystem expansion and influence on traditional media. Last, Netflix cut 1,000 people, including their long-time head of content, but the company still lacks a strong growth narrative.  

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The Skydance deal has closed, bringing together Paramount Skydance and Warner Bros. Discovery. As Colin and I discuss on this week’s episode, numerous questions are swirling around the company. 

Chief among them are whether Paramount+ and HBO Max will be merged, or bundled? Another is how severe the job cuts will be? Yet another is how durable the cash flow from the unpredictable studios business will be? On the latter front, WBD’s flop with Tom Cruise’s latest film “Digger” underscores how fragile studio cash flow is. Nonetheless it will be counted on to help fund the interest on Skydance’s $80 billion of debt. 

We also discuss Disney’s new licensing deal with Netflix, Amazon getting the Emmys, and Google-Unity’s new partnership to enable user-generated games, leveraging Google’s AI and Unity’s game development engine. 
 
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Netflix seems to have lost the script for how to reaccelerate growth, as became clear in an interview this week between Co-CEO and Chief Content Officer Ted Sarandos and Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw at the Bloomberg Screentime conference. 

On today’s Inside the Stream episode, we’re trying a new format where we share a number of short clips from the interview and then provide our analysis of what we heard.

The specific topics the clips focus on are: Netflix members’ engagement, growth going forward, competitive dynamics with YouTube, and the opportunity for a free, advertising-supported offering. We also discuss Netflix’s financials and a detailed discussion about how a free content offering could meaningfully move top-line revenue. 

The full interview is on Bloomberg’s YouTube channel. 

Please let us know your reactions to this format. 
 
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