YouTube Threat Drives Netflix to 52-week Low

By Douglas A. McIntyre Published Feb 19, 9:48AM EST

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YouTube Threat Drives Netflix to 52-week Low — © kasinv / iStock Editorial via Getty Images

“YouTube Is Winning the Streaming Wars,” reads a recent headline from Barron’s. The general consensus is that Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX | NFLX Price Prediction) is near a 52-week low due to its attempt to acquire a stake in Warner Bros. Discovery (NYSE: WBD) for $83 billion in cash (its cable assets will be spun out). Pessimists say this will cost too much money. Or, it has the wrong strategy, or the Warner streaming assets aren’t valuable enough. Or, the movie-making business offers choppy revenue.

None of these are the essential reasons Netflix is down, at least in the opinion of savvy investors. Its business model faces an existential threat: Alphabet’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) YouTube, which is taking the video-streaming market hostage.

YouTube offers, among other things, user-generated content that is usually free. It has hundreds of millions of people and companies creating content. It is like Joe Rogan on steroids. Any of the creators may have a breakout show. And, YouTube sells ads against this content. This revenue keeps the creators coming, and coming. The supply of this content moves toward infinity.

YouTube regularly leads the sector in total television viewing time in the U.S. Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge data from early 2025 to early 2026 demonstrates this. YouTube accounted for approximately 13% of all TV viewing time in recent months, typically ranking as the leading media distributor overall. Netflix was behind at 9%. Netflix may have one advantage. It has an audience that is usually captive for an hour or two. It is unclear whether people watch creator-based shows for that long–even when they are long. YouTube reaches over 2.7 billion monthly users globally, according to Global Media Insights. Put that alongside 325 million paid subscribers, according to Variety.

YouTube generated over $60 billion in revenue last year. Netflix’s number was just above $45 billion. Regarding the cost of revenue, YouTube faces minimal risk from user-generated and creator content. Netflix produces movies and comedy specials that cost into the hundreds of millions of dollars.

Netflix has a huge library, but nothing that can match YouTube in that arena (almost infinite). YouTube has changed what “TV” is. That is more flexible, algorithm-driven discovery, also driven by social media. Netflix co- CEO Greg Peters has said YouTube is a real rival, perhaps more so than other streamers like Disney or Warner Bros. He has an algorithm, but nothing like those built by Google.

Today, online video is often measured by what is called “engagement”. A portion of that is viewing time. YouTube’s “always on” probably gives it an advantage.

Finally, YouTube has begun to encroach on premium TV. Its YouTube Premium TV service has over 125 million subscribers who receive ad-free content for as little as $13.99 per month. For example, as Reuters pointed out, “YouTube said it will roll out new genre-based subscription plans for YouTube TV in the U.S. early next year, underscoring the platform’s growing clout in the American pay-TV market and its push to lock in sports fans.”

While Wall St. looks at Netflix M&A, it should be watching YouTube.

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.