Evan Shapiro (far right) with, from left, Media Play News publisher Thomas K. Arnold, former Whip Media executive Michael Sid, and MVD Entertainment Group CEO Ed Seaman. (Media Play News staff photo)
Evan, Ted, and YouTube
April 28, 2025
I first met Evan Shapiro at a party in Miami hosted by former Whip Media executive Michael Sid on the first night of the NATPE show earlier this year. I was hanging out with Ed Seaman of MVD Entertainment and both of us initially thought he was in a band — think Mike Score of A Flock of Seagulls, circa 1982.
We started talking, and I quickly realized Evan was an astute observer of the streaming business with some pretty strong opinions about where this business was headed. He shared that he was giving a talk the next day, titled “The Streaming Wars Are Over. Welcome to the Great Media War,” and I told him I would definitely be there.
The room was packed, and I, like many of the other attendees, was wowed by Shapiro’s presentation — and the premise behind its provocative title. In the proverbial nutshell, Shapiro maintains that the subscription streaming services established by the big media companies to compete with Netflix have failed miserably in their attempts to topple the leader, and instead of trying to be the next Netflix they should be aware of a generational shift toward creator content.
“Selling high-priced, premium television to gatekeepers is not really a great model anymore,” Shapiro said in his NATPE presentation. “You need to learn how to build your own audience, direct to consumer.”
The cover story in our April 2025 issue delves deeper into Shapiro’s contention that the streaming wars are over and Netflix has won — as well as his belief that more radical disruptions lie ahead, driven by a younger audience that did not grow up on traditional television but, rather, spends most of its time on the phone, watching YouTube or short-form content on social media.
Subscribe HERE to the FREE Media Play News Daily Newsletter!
He also maintains that Netflix, too, is vulnerable to this next wave of disruptions, calling its triumph in the streaming wars a “Pyrrhic victory” because the future of viewing is changing before us and even Netflix’s moves into live sports and advertising may not be enough for the streamer to triumph in what Shapiro calls “the great media war,” which is essentially a battle for eyeballs.
And in the battle for eyeballs, Netflix is not the winner. YouTube is.
In February, the Google-owned service for the second time topped Nielsen’s monthly media gauge with 11.6% of total household TV viewing, ahead of Disney (10%), Fox (8.3%), Netflix and Paramount Global at 8.2% each, and NBCUniversal at 8.1%.
And just as we were putting this feature to bed, Wall Street analyst firm MoffettNathson proclaimed YouTube the “New King of All Media,” with an enterprise value approaching $550 billion if it were a standalone company.
The research firm contends YouTube will become the largest media company this year, with a predicted generation of $54.2 billion in advertising revenue.
YouTube’s ascendancy hasn’t gone unnoticed by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. During a March 28 “Paley Dialogue” conversation at the Paley Center for Media in New York, Sarandos said he monitors what he calls YouTube’s “pro-am category” of content, looking for potentially “interesting, compelling programming to watch” and produce.
Stay tuned.