Pulse News

**YouTube Tries Again to Compete With Amazon to Become All-Video Hub**

By Sahil Patel

Mar 3, 2025, 6:00am PST

It should have been easy. YouTube in late 2022 began including in its app video-streaming services operated by other media companies, such as Paramount Global's Paramount+ and Warner Bros. Discovery's Max. People could sign up for the services directly from the YouTube app—YouTube would get a cut—and watch without toggling around on their TV. Amazon makes a lot of money out of a similar feature.

But those efforts stalled for a simple reason: YouTube staffers couldn't figure out how to seamlessly add paid subscriptions to the front page of the app, which offers carousels of free videos that reflect each person's viewing history. The new paid offerings were also put on a separate page of the app. With few consumers signing up for the services, YouTube mostly stopped adding new services while it tried to figure out how to fix the problem.

**The Takeaway**

- YouTube is redoubling efforts to compete with Amazon as streaming hub

- Past attempts stalled over problems integrating paid services with free programs

- Streaming services complain of having been stuck in limbo for past two years

Now the company thinks it has a solution. A long-planned redesign of its app for TVs, which it's expected to unveil in the next few months, will show an on-screen guide that looks more like Netflix, Disney+, and other major streaming services, with rows of shows. Content from paid services, available through an initiative YouTube calls Primetime Channels, will be slotted in on the front page of the app.

YouTube executives have told media firms recently that expanding the Primetime Channels business is a top priority for this year and next, according to one media executive who spoke with the company. Driving that is YouTube's strategic aim to make its app a hub for all types of streaming video—whether regular television on paid services or free programming from creators or from the past. That way, YouTube can draw as many people as possible to its app.

"No matter what the business model is, no matter what the content type is, it's all right there [on YouTube]," said Kurt Wilms, senior director of product management at YouTube and product lead on the TV app redesign.

On the face of it, YouTube may seem to be doing fine as it is. It is already the most-used app on TV screens, accounting for 10.8% of total TV time among viewers in the U.S., according to Nielsen. Its ad revenue grew 14.7% in 2024 to $36 billion, far more than that of traditional TV companies (although YouTube has to share its ad revenue with creators).

However, insiders say there's a limit to how much ad revenue it can generate. The streaming service has near-limitless advertising inventory, but not all of that space can get filled because ad dollars are a finite resource, said a person with knowledge of YouTube's approach.

But YouTube also has an opportunity to make money off those videos by selling subscriptions, which is why it is trying to build up its subscription revenue—in part through the Primetime Channels initiative. YouTube has lately taken to highlighting that revenue, which includes money it generates from YouTube Premium, its ad-free subscription offering, as well as YouTube Music and YouTube TV, which streams traditional TV channels like a cable TV service. And recently, YouTube said it was testing a lower-cost version of its YouTube Premium service, suggesting it wants to expand subscriber numbers further.

Last October on an earnings call, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said YouTube's combined advertising and subscription revenues had surpassed $50 billion for the first time over the previous 12 months. In that time period, YouTube generated $34.9 billion in ad revenue, which suggests its subscription business alone surpassed $15 billion.

"People come to YouTube for everything from scripted dramas to podcasts, NFL games to the latest music—it's all on YouTube," said a YouTube spokesperson in a statement. "We give users more ways to customize their experience and get all their favorite content in one place with products like Primetime Channels, NFL Sunday Ticket, and YouTube Premium."

**Googling to Find Shows**

The challenges for consumers of finding shows on streaming TV is one some in the industry have long complained about. On Thursday, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav complained, "When you put the TV set on and you see 18 apps and...three people watching TV at the same time have their phones out Googling where a show is or where a sport is, it's not a good consumer experience."

When YouTube launched Primetime Channels in late 2022, it noted: "With more streaming options than ever before, it can get a little overwhelming jumping from app to app to find what you're looking for." It added that Primetime Channels would solve that problem.

But YouTube's decision to put the paid services on a separate page turned out to be a mistake, making it hard for consumers to find them. Two media executives with services that were available early on said YouTube accounted for a very small amount of subscription revenue. And since YouTube stopped adding new services, frustrations among media executives have worsened. Media firms complained of having been stuck in limbo for the past two years as YouTube tried to resolve the issue.

One executive said YouTube has rebuffed their requests to have their subscription service added through Primetime Channels for nearly two years, with their YouTube representative pointing to the integration challenges as a reason. At one point early last year, YouTube staffers suggested the firm talk to the team at YouTube TV about getting included as an add-on offering to that service.

Another media executive said his firm had reached a deal with YouTube to add its streaming service to Primetime Channels nearly two years ago, but the app menu still hadn't added the service. In discussions with the company, YouTube representatives cited the same integration challenges, the executive said. YouTube declined to comment.

The problem, said a former YouTube staffer, is that YouTube found it difficult to seamlessly integrate shows from paid services within the front page's carousels of free videos. The new design should resolve that problem.

The redesign will do more than add paid subscription services to the front page. YouTube's creators will be able to organize their video libraries into show pages with episodes and seasons for the first time. YouTube is also adding previews of shows that play automatically, just as Netflix and other services do. "The vision is that when you come to our [TV] app and you're looking for a show, it'll just blend away whether that show is from a Primetime Channel or that show is from a creator," Wilms said.