For years, legacy media execs smugly dismissed YouTube as the home of cat videos and vloggers with ring lights. They obsessed over “prestige” content, poured billions into original programming, and convinced themselves that YouTube was just a digital sideshow.
Now, those same execs are scrambling to figure out their YouTube strategies because, surprise—YouTube isn’t just competing with traditional TV anymore. It is TV.
And it got there without spending a single dime on scripted originals.
No Originals. No Problem
YouTube’s VP for EMEA, Pedro Pina, made it clear this week at MIP London: YouTube has “no interest whatsoever” in producing original content.
And why would it? While Netflix, Disney+, and the rest are setting cash on fire trying to win the content war, YouTube is raking in billions without ever stepping onto the battlefield.
It’s not just that YouTube doesn’t need originals—it actively proves, month after month, that they’re irrelevant.
The Numbers Don’t Lie: YouTube Is the Most-Watched Streaming Platform
- In January, YouTube accounted for 10.8% of total U.S. TV watch time—more than Netflix (8.6%), Prime Video (3.7%), and Disney, which includes Disney+, ESPN+, and Hulu SVOD (4..7%).
- More people watch YouTube on their TVs than on mobile or desktop. It’s not just a second-screen distraction anymore—it’s the default entertainment hub in the living room.
- 1 billion hours of YouTube content are consumed daily across devices. That’s not competition. That’s obliteration.
For all the talk about cord-cutting and streaming fragmentation, the reality is simple: people are watching YouTube, on TV, in massive numbers, and traditional media is just now realizing it.
Hollywood Spent Billions Competing With Netflix—And Ignored Its Real Threat
The biggest mistake legacy media made? They were too busy chasing Netflix to see YouTube eating their lunch.
Traditional execs fetishized “premium content,” burning billions on scripted originals and high-profile flops, all while dismissing YouTube as amateur hour. But while they were patting themselves on the back for winning Emmys, YouTube was quietly becoming the world’s most dominant entertainment platform.
And now? Those same companies are desperately uploading full episodes, sports highlights, and even entire movies onto YouTube—because they have no choice.
TV needs YouTube more than YouTube needs TV.
YouTube Tried Originals—And Rightfully Gave Up
Let’s not forget that YouTube actually tried making its own shows. It just failed spectacularly.
- Remember “Cobra Kai”? Yeah, it started on YouTube. But after realizing scripted content was a money pit, YouTube dumped it onto Netflix, where it finally found mass appeal.
- YouTube limped along with some unscripted originals until 2023, when it finally pulled the plug entirely.
- Pedro Pina summed it up best: “Our commercial success will only exist with other people’s content.”
Translation? We tried making shows, realized it was a dumb idea, and decided to just take a cut of everyone else’s work instead. And that’s exactly why YouTube is the most profitable streaming platform on Earth.
Why Make Content When You Can Monetize Everyone Else’s?
YouTube’s business model is simple: let other people make the content and take a cut of everything.
- Ad Revenue Machine: YouTube posted $10.5 billion in Q4 ad revenue, pushing its total 2024 earnings to $36.15 billion. That’s more than Netflix’s entire annual revenue—and YouTube didn’t spend billions making shows to do it.
- Subscription Upsell: YouTube Premium, Music, and Primetime Channels let YouTube take a cut of subscription dollars indefinitely—without producing a thing.
- Primetime Channels Power Play: YouTube sells subscriptions to Max, Paramount+, Starz, and more—essentially acting as the middleman for services that are struggling to attract subscribers on their own. And yes, YouTube gets a cut in perpetuity.
In other words: while other streamers fight tooth and nail to keep subscribers from canceling, YouTube profits no matter what.
Creators Are the New Studios—And YouTube Owns Them
YouTube doesn’t need to make shows because its creators already are.
- YouTubers like Alan Chikin Chow and Kinigra Deon are building full-scale production studios, churning out high-quality, serialized content that pulls in millions of viewers.
- Channel memberships grew by 40% last year, proving audiences are willing to pay for creator-driven content.
- More than 50% of five-figure-earning creators now make money from shopping recommendations and brand partnerships—diversifying revenue streams beyond ads.
Neal Mohan, YouTube’s CEO, summed it up perfectly: YouTubers are the startups of Hollywood. While traditional studios drown in debt, creators are building empires—with YouTube taking a cut of every dollar they make.
YouTube Is the World’s Largest Podcast and Music Platform Too
And just in case obliterating TV wasn’t enough, YouTube also quietly became the biggest podcast platform on the planet.
- 1 billion people watch podcast content on YouTube every month—that’s 20% of the connected world.
- YouTube has 10x the audience of Spotify and more U.S. podcast listeners than Apple Podcasts.
- People aren’t just watching on their phones—400 million hours of podcasts were streamed on TVs each month in 2024.
Oh, and YouTube is also the world’s largest music platform. Traditional platforms can’t compete because YouTube doesn’t just own the content—it owns the discovery.
The Final Take: YouTube Already Won
YouTube isn’t a streaming service. It’s the entertainment platform.
It’s bigger than Netflix, bigger than Spotify, bigger than Apple Podcasts. It is TV, it is music, it is podcasting. And it dominates all of them without ever needing to spend billions on content.
While other platforms burn cash on originals, YouTube sits back, collects ad revenue, and takes a cut of nearly every entertainment business that uses it.
Traditional media tried to ignore YouTube. Now, they’re desperately trying to catch up.
