Podcasts

YouTube is now the world’s biggest media company, with an estimated $62 billion revenue in 2025, according to analysts MoffettNathanson. That would exceed Disney’s, though be slightly less than the combined Paramount Skydance-Warner Bros. Discovery. We discuss key components on YouTube’s revenue, its competitive advantages and prospects going forward. 

Then we discuss the challenges viewers have navigating streaming services to find sports they’re looking for. New Hub Entertainment Research found that sports fragmentation caused frustration by 87% of viewers. Addressing this pain point are new features from ESPN, Roku and others helping ease things. 

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Paramount Skydance chairman and CEO David Ellison said this week that its streaming portfolio and Warner Bros. Discovery’s will be combined into one platform in the coming years. While details still need to be revealed, on this week’s episode Colin and I discuss the move’s opportunities and challenges. A critical decision will be the branding of the streaming services, and retaining the marquee HBO brand front and center. We also like the potential for bundling and technology integration.

Less clear would be how the combined services would be priced and how much new streaming audience share and revenue they’d generate. Another question is how fast services can wean the merged companies from reliance on legacy TV revenue. 

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First up this week we discuss Antenna’s new State of Subscriptions report, which shows a maturing SVOD market with single-digit subscriber growth in 2025. Spike days of acquisition continue to be concentrated, with Q4 becoming ever more important. Churn has also stabilized. We also discuss the increasingly important role of bundling.

As we recorded the news broke that Netflix has backed out of the bidding for WBD, so we briefly discuss that, in the context of the latest Nielsen The Gauge numbers and how TV viewing shares will change when the deal eventually closes. 

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Apple has partnered with IMAX to screen 5 F1 races at 50 different IMAX locations around the US this year. The move follows Apple’s 5-year deal with F1 from last October for exclusive US broadcast rights. Both of us like how the IMAX partnership leverages the broadcast deal and broadens exposure of Apple TV, likely driving more subscribers. 

Elsewhere, more than half of YouTube’s UK audience now watches on their TVs. YouTube has also become the fourth most-viewed navigation platform, illustrating how YouTube has integrated mobile and web with connected TV. Speaking of YouTube, Stephen Colbert used it this week to stream an interview CBS blocked him from broadcasting. We discuss all. 

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YouTube TV has begun rolling out its less expensive tiers of service, which it announced late last year. The tiers focus on sports, sports plus news and entertainment. All are priced less than its $83 per month base tier. Colin and I discuss whether the new tiers will attract cord-cutters and cord-nevers and whether existing subscribers will downgrade. 

Elsewhere, AMC reached a milestone, reporting that in Q4 it generated more revenue from streaming domestically than from its affiliate/traditional pay-TV distribution. And of course, last Sunday’s Super Bowl was a broadcast hit, but we are still waiting on specific Peacock numbers. We discuss all. 

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The NFL-ESPN deal has closed with the league taking a 10% ownership stake in the sports cable network, in exchange for handing over NFL Network, NFL RedZone and fantasy assets. Meanwhile the NFL is looking to renegotiate it existing media deals. We discuss the implications. 

Meanwhile Fubo and Hulu+Live have joined forces, though we’re not sure about the specifics. YouTube’s total revenue for 2025 topped $60 billion, and Peacock’s losses escalated despite adding 3 million subscribers in Q4. Join us for a discussion of all.

[UPDATE: Fubo asked Colin to correct the net loss numbers he quoted in the podcast and clarified that ad revenue from Hulu+Live is transferred to Fubo. Here are their numbers:

– Reported Net Loss of $19.1 million, compared to $38.6 million


– Pro Forma Net Loss of $46.4 million, compared to $130.4 million]

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Netflix reported a strong 2025 though Colin calculates engagement per viewer seems to have lightened up. The jockeying for WBD continues with Paramount. Meanwhile BBC is going to start making shows specifically for YouTube. This comes in the wake of last week’s report that by certain metrics YouTube viewership is eclipsing BBC’s in the UK. 

Then we discuss the demise of Sony’s TV business, which was spun into a JV with TCL this week. Finally, Amazon is on a streak, recently recording a new record for live-streaming an NFL game.

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The YouTube colossus rumbles on as new data shows YouTube with 51 million viewers in the UK in Q4 ’25, just edging out the BBC with 50.8 million viewers. The caveat is that this is for three minutes only, with an expanded 15 minute definition still showing the BBC ahead. 

Meanwhile ad-tier usage among paid streaming services continue to increase across the board. Netflix has 40% of its active accounts using its ad plan, while Disney+ has 44% and HBO Max has 28%, all up year-over-year. Last we discuss the impact of Peacock of losing Versant content. 

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In our first podcast of 2026 we discuss Comcast’s spinoff of Versant, which was finalized earlier this week. So far Wall Street has been cool to the stock, indicating further concern about cable networks’ future. Next, Colin shares his observations on news from CES related TV OEMs and AI. The NFL continued its streak of record viewing on Christmas with Netflix, and on Thursday Night Football with Amazon. Last, we explore Disney’s plan to sunset the Hulu app.


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YouTube will begin streaming the Oscars globally in 2029 per a new deal with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As Colin and I discuss, it’s another indicator that streaming platforms’ financial clout and distribution reach have become critical differentiators for marquee events. 

Next we discuss Netflix’s further push into video podcasts following announcements with iHeartMedia and Barstool Sports this week. Finally, we explore Google and YouTube’s return to Movies Anywhere and the ongoing WBD acquisition saga. 

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In a bold move, Disney has licensed 200 of its characters for use in OpenAI’s Sora. In today’s podcast we discuss the benefits and risks of the deal, which opens a new chapter of collaboration between rights holders and AI platforms. We like Disney’s openness to user-generated content to better compete with YouTube, but are cautious about the effectiveness of the proposed guardrails in deterring misuse of Disney’s prized characters. 

Then we shift focus to the battle to own Warner Bros. Discovery. Colin thinks Netflix is likely to prevail, while I think Paramount has the edge. We explain why. 

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This week on Inside the Stream, we start with MS NOW’s plan to evolve into a streaming and community hub for progressive activism. Given cord-cutting and the decline of linear TV news consumption by younger viewers, we see it as a positive move. Next, we discuss why data indicates engagement with Prime Video is far lower than other streaming services. Finally, microdramas continue their growth and monetization. 

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This week on Inside the Stream, Canela Media’s global president Philippe Guelton joins us to talk about how the company is tapping AI for content and character creation, user experience and monetization. Canela Media target the U.S. Hispanic market with culturally relevant content. As Philippe describes, a key initiative is Club Canela, a loyalty program which features an AI-generated virtual host named Diego. AI is also leaning into creating microdramas, and using data to better understand its audiences. 

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This week on Inside the Stream we interview Doug McNamee, President of Field & Stream and Nick Rhodes, CEO of Outdoor America Holdings on their new partnership to rebrand Outdoor America’s FAST channel as Field & Stream TV. Doug and Nick discuss the reasons behind the rebrand, the content strategy and where Field & Stream TV fits in the overall outdoor media industry, which has many popular YouTube personalities. They also discuss how Field & Stream TV will be monetized and various opportunities ahead.  

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Fubo’s deal with Disney has closed and during this week’s earnings call Fubo outlined the path forward. We discuss the four areas of benefit which were identified and what the future might look like. 

Then we explore Netflix’s new Monthly Active Viewers metric, which is defined as those who watched at least one minute of ads on Netflix per month, multiplied by Netflix’s estimated average number of people in a household. Netflix said it now has 190 million MAVs globally. We explore whether this a valuable metric or not. Last, we dig into new data from Gracenote which shows FAST growth and viewers’ frustrations. 

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First up this week, Fox reported that Tubi turned profitable for the first time this past quarter, with revenue up 27% and view time up 18%. Tubi has been a major ad-supported streaming success story.  

Speaking of success stories, next we discuss YouTube, which keeps growing. Alphabet reported that YouTube’s ad revenue in Q3 was $10.3 billion, up 15% vs. the prior year. Shorts is a particular highlight for the company, which separately announced voluntary buyouts this week. 

On the flip side, we discuss how Peacock’s subscribers have been stuck at 41 million for the past 3 quarters. In fact they’re up just 7 million since the end of Q1 ’24. While losses have declined, the $2.5 billion per year NBA rights deal is going to weigh on future profitability. And as we discuss, it’s not clear how many longer term subscribers the NBA games will drive.  

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Netflix reported Q3 ’25 results this week and said it expects advertising revenue to more than double in 2025 vs. 2024. As Colin and I discuss, it wasn’t that long ago that Netflix rejected the idea of offering an ad-supported tier at all; now that tier is driving significant growth for the company. 

Meanwhile, with the NBA season underway, games on NBC and Peacock are being broadcast and streamed. But, we’re skeptical that the $27 billion 11-year rights deal is likely to pay off for Peacock in sustainable subscriber growth or significantly increased time watched. 

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Antenna’s CEO Jonathan Carson joins us this week to explain his firm’s new product, Subscriber Views, which reveals programming’s true value for streaming services. Subscriber views marries licensed ACR data with Antenna’s own streaming subscriber data to derive viewers’ behavior around specific pieces of content. Subscriber Views then creates metrics for programming’s value in driving subscribers’ acquisition, retention and engagement.

As Jonathan explained, big streaming services have sophisticated analytics teams who understand the value of their own programming, but Subscriber Views provides a competitive intelligence tool to better understand viewers’ behavior on other services. Subscriber views data helps streamers better target their programming investments, schedule their releases and inform bundling options. 

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Netflix is getting closer to achieving parity revenue on subscribers to its ad-supported tier compared to subscribers to its ad-free. Colin shares his detailed analysis outlining the numbers. Then we discuss updates in the TV OS world including The Trade Desk inking a deal to bring Ventura OS to DIRECTV and Amazon launching Vega OS, which will replace Android on its Fire TVs. Last we explore the benefits of Fubo’s new deal to ingest ESPN content into its app.  

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New data from Wurl shows encouraging signs about FAST adoption, but accompanied by ongoing monetization challenges. The number of monthly active households watching FAST channels increased by 12% (though Wurl doesn’t disclose how many MAUs that translates to). In addition, average daily hours of viewing per household increased by 16% (again Wurl doesn’t share how many hours that is). Combined Wurl says the increase in total hours of viewing was up 29% in the past 12 months. 

But while viewership is up, monetization remains challenged. In particular, Wurl reported that ad fill rates continued their downward trend. As we discuss, monthly fill rates were down in six of the first eight months of 2025 vs. 2024, after having declined in 11 of the 12 months of 2024 vs. 2023.

Content choices are exploding, distribution platforms are proliferating and people are watching more content for free. All that is creating disequilibriums in FAST monetization.  

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