Is YouTube Responsible for These Industry Changes?
By Movieguide® Contributor
YouTube accounts for 10% of total TV viewing for the first time, and its impact on the industry is being felt, particularly within kids’ content where traditional streamers are beginning to pull back.
YouTube’s dominance in the streaming industry is undeniable. Though the public may not have thought about it in the same league as Netflix until recently, it has topped streaming TV viewership for nearly two straight years. That dominance is now beginning to exert pressure on competing companies, especially within its most popular demographic: Kids.
Within the past year, Cartoon Network’s and Nickelodeon’s standalone streaming platforms, Boomerang and Noggin, respectively, were shut down. While these are two titans in the realm of children’s content, they haven’t been able to compete with the dominance that YouTube has reached for this key demographic.
Boomerang was thus disbanded and its content was incorporated onto Warner Bros. Discovery’s Max, while Noggin is in the process of shutting down, and most of its content is already available on Paramount+. Even Disney’s children’s content has struggled to attract the audience it needs, causing the company to incorporate more adult content onto Disney+ and offering some shows originally made for Hulu to offer value to an older audience.
While these companies have needed to wrap their children’s content into streaming services that also offer adult content for economic reasons, these changes might cause their viewership to drop even more as parents may hesitate to have their children accidentally exposed to these adult shows.
YouTube, meanwhile, remains the premier destination for kids’ content, even leading the way for its creators to jump to legacy media from the brands they have built. Incredibly popular kids show COCOMELON, for example, began as a show on YouTube before being picked up by Netflix.
More recently, YouTube channels such as Ryan’s World and Ms. Rachel have made this jump. Ryan’s World released a theatrical movie earlier this month which opened to over 1,200 theaters nationwide. Ms. Rachel, meanwhile, is collaborating with SESAME STREET this year to create catchy songs to help children with their daily lives.
While kids’ content is the most notable area where YouTube’s dominance is affecting other streamers, the pressure it’s exerting is felt across the industry, and a strategy to combat it is in the minds of every major streamer.
Movieguide® previously reported:
YouTube continues to dominate streaming, a title it’s held for over a year and a half, causing other players in the industry to view it as both a friend and a foe.
Nielsen’s May 2024 TV usage report revealed that YouTube accounted for 9.7% of all TV usage that month, handily beating out Netflix’s second place 7.6% of TV usage, which was more than double that of any other platform. This marked nearly a year and a half of holding the crown just above Netflix’s head.
While YouTube isn’t typically thought of as a streaming service, its dominance in the TV space puts it at odds with traditional media, causing streaming platforms to consider it when creating their long-term strategies.
Disney, for example, has turned to YouTube’s massive audience to promote its content, particularly children’s content, posting clips from upcoming shows to generate hype. While it has yet to do so, it has also considered posting full episodes of shows from Hulu and Disney+ onto YouTube to entice viewers to subscribe to its platforms.
