We examine the latest shifts in the streaming landscape. How are major players working together to compete? 

The TV landscape is going through constant evolution. Once limited to linear, it’s now a heavily fragmented ecosystem, dominated by streaming and major players like YouTube, who turned the industry on its head and posed the question: what should be defined as TV now? Definitions shift and fragmentation intensifies, while M&A activity redirects the path of major players. 

The industry turned yet another new page with the dust settling on Paramount’s win in the Warner Bros race. The deal, which closed at USD$111bn (£83bn), is one of the industry’s biggest ever. 

How Paramount’s acquisition of Warner Bros could affect the industry 

The deal will see a substantial number of streaming services and channels merged under one umbrella: Warner Bros’ film and TV catalogue, Paramount+, CBS, Showtime, Nickelodeon, MTV, HBO Max and HBO Library, Pluto TV FAST streaming, as well as unscripted content from Discovery+ combined. 

The merged group is expected to serve up to 200 million subscribers globally, improving its negotiating power in the landscape. However, new challenges will emerge for Paramount following the acquisition, namely, taking on debt from completing the transaction. 

What do advertisers stand to gain from the deal? Those seeking large audiences will benefit the most. They will gain access to a massive, unified reach, with one buy potentially able to reach hundreds of millions of viewers globally. This is particularly attractive to global brands that want broad reach without needing to negotiate with multiple platforms. 

This could mean reduced complexities, and consequently, improved media buying. The merger could enable a unified ad marketplace, a single campaign reporting dashboard, and cross-platform frequency control. 

It could also mean higher prices for advertisers, however, with decreased competition in the market and reduced negotiation leverage – something which may also apply on the consumer side. 

How is competition among major players shaping up? 

In subscriber numbers, how does the merged group compare to other streamers? It’s about on par with Amazon, whose current number of subscribers sits at 220 million. It beats Disney+ substantially, who reached almost 132 million subscribers by the end of 2025.  

Netflix is still ahead of these by a long shot, having reached 325 million subscribers by the end of 2025. Although it remains far in the lead by subscriber numbers, the Warner Bros acquisition definitely shakes things up, as it merges with Paramount to become a single, much larger competitor. 

Yet despite these impressive figures, YouTube is miles ahead when it comes to long-form video streaming, used by billions worldwide. Last year, the platform's TV viewership overtook that of mobile devices for the first time in the US, representing a major shift. Meanwhile in the UK, Ofcom revealed that YouTube had become the most popular first destination on TV for children.

Unsurprisingly, YouTube is also way ahead when it comes to ad revenue. Looking at figures for 2025, YouTube achieved a sum of over USD$40.4bn (£30.15bn), a sum greater than that of Disney, NBC, Paramount, and WBD combined, which came to USD$37.8bn (£28.21). 

Collaboration and consolidation 

With YouTube being such a dominant player on the streaming scene, other streamers have been banding together to benefit from each other’s positions in the market and give each other a leg up in taking on the most dominant Big Tech giants. 

Amazon and Netflix are cosying up further: a couple of weeks ago, Amazon Ads announced that starting from next quarter, media buyers within the US will be able to tap Amazon Audiences for targeting when they run Netflix campaigns through the Amazon DSP. This builds on Netflix revealing in late 2024 that it would make its inventory available programmatically through the Amazon DSP. 

Another huge collaboration from recent years was the bundling of Disney+, Hulu, and Max – a move in which competitors came together to compete with larger platforms such as Netflix. 

UK broadcaster ITV also teamed with Disney last year in a content-sharing agreement, marketing the first major content-sharing deal between a UK broadcaster and a global streaming giant, intended to expand audiences on both platforms.  

Focusing solely on the UK, traditional broadcasters have also been joining forces to strengthen themselves as they take on the challenges brought about by declining linear TV viewership. Freely, the streaming service launched in 2024 as a joint venture between the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, is a major example. 

Another significant collaboration between UK broadcasters is Sky, ITV, and Channel 4’s creation of a unified TV advertising marketplace – expected to launch this year. The marketplace will allow advertisers to run one campaign across the streaming inventories of all three broadcasters. 

The BBC is now even considering opening up its iPlayer platform to host rival broadcasters as it sets out to find new ways of compelling the British public to pay the license fee. 

Looking ahead 

As 2026 unfolds, we’ll see the effects of Paramount’s Warner Bros acquisition. Elsewhere, we’ll see the launch of Sky, ITV, and Channel 4’s unified TV advertising marketplace. Maybe we’ll see the BBC open up iPlayer to other rival broadcasters. 

Right now, it looks pretty certain that YouTube will maintain its winning streak for quite some time. In response to this, we can be sure to see more consolidation between major streamers, as well as with traditional broadcasters, as players attempt to compete against Google’s video king.