YouTube may be on its way to beat Disney

YouTube is expected to be “officially crowned the new king of all media,” a Wall Street analyst has predicted. According to MoffettNathanson analyst Michael Nathanson, the Google-owned video streaming platform is on course to surpass Disney and soon become the media company with the highest revenue. In 2024, YouTube earned $54.2 billion, ranking it as the second-largest media company by revenue. Meanwhile, Disney's media revenue reached $59.7 billion (excluding parks and experiences), while both Warner Bros Discovery and Netflix generated about $39 billion each.

In a recent note (as seen by The Hollywood Reporter), Nathanson wrote: “YouTube has the potential to become the central aggregator for all things professional video, positioning itself to capture a share of the $85 billion consumer Pay TV market and the ~$30 billion streaming ex. Netflix market in the US. Looking ahead, we expect subscription revenue growth to continue to outpace advertising, driven primarily by subscriber additions. However, with no further price increases factored into our model, we anticipate a gradual slowdown in subscription growth as net additions moderate, particularly for YouTube TV. As a result, we forecast YouTube’s total revenue growth to settle in the low- to mid-double-digit range from 2025 through 2027. This trajectory – and the potential to inflect the trend upward – underscores why we explore YouTube’s monetisation dynamics and the untapped opportunities that lie ahead in the sections below. In our view, the opportunity is ripe for the taking.”
The report also notes that YouTube is doing good across three revenue streams: Advertising generated over $36 billion in 2024, subscription services—including YouTube Premium, YouTube Music, and related products—are fueling direct subscriber growth, and YouTube TV is rapidly emerging as one of the largest US pay-TV providers with over 8 million subscribers.
This report comes after YouTube overtook streaming majors, including both Disney and Netflix, in share of total TV viewership time last month. As per data from the latest edition of Nielsen‘s Media Distributor Gauge report, YouTube hit a record 11.6% of all TV viewing to dethrone Disney from the top spot.