By Hernan Lopez
Companies mentioned: Alphabet, Charter, Comcast, Disney,Google, Meta, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Peacock, Universal, Univision,Warner Bros. Discovery, YouTube
Questions answered: Why isYouTube handing Peacock to 10M+ Premium subs instead of charging for it? What did Sunday Ticket do to YouTube TV's subscriber curve, and will Peacock do the same for Premium? How much is this worth to NBCU, and who absorbs the cost? Which streamer couldn't sign this deal today even if it wanted to?
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Last week, with the Peacock deal, YouTube took another step to become TV faster than TV can become YouTube.
Neal Mohan has been saying that YouTube already is TV since early 2025. But the company is executing three transformations at once: from mobile-first to mobile-plus-TV, from advertising-supported to one-third subscription, and from the hub for creator videos to the hub for all videos.
The third transformation has been the trickiest to pull off...