Together, they turned 930 billion hours into $10B profit. But they got there very differently.
By Hernan Lopez. Mentioned in this newsletter: Apple, CBS, Joe Budden, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Netflix, Paramount+, Oxford Road, South Park, Substack, TF1, YouTube.
Netflix reported Q2 results and H1 “What We Watched” last week. YouTube parent Alphabet reported yesterday. While Alphabet doesn’t break out subscriber revenue, profits or engagement for YouTube, I have been modeling all three using third-party data, to give you a sense of how the top two streamers stack up, and what that foretells for all market participants.
The good news: combined, they generated $10BN in operating income from streaming in 1H25. Here’s what else stood out.
Netflix
Netflix beat its forecast with $3.8B in Q2 Operating Profit (+45% Y/Y) and $11.1B revenue (+16%), raising full-year guidance for both metrics. But lingering questions about engagement and membership growth remained. Following the report, the company’s market cap dropped from over half a trillion dollars to…