PARQOR is the handbook every media and technology executive needs to navigate the seismic shifts underway in the media business. Through in-depth analysis from a network of senior media and tech leaders, Andrew Rosen cuts through what's happening, highlights what it means and suggests where you should go next.  

In Q4 2022, PARQOR will be focusing on four trends: this essay touches on all four. 

Yesterday, YouTube finally released PrimeTime Channels, its own version of Amazon’s Prime Video Channels and The Roku Channel’s Premium subscription offerings. Meaning, users will now be able to “sign up, browse and watch [their] favorite TV shows, movies and sports” within YouTube. It will be in the U.S., only.

I thought there were two notable sentences in YouTube’s blog post. 

“Once you sign up, content from your Primetime Channels will be reflected into the YouTube experience you know and love.”

This is an elegant way of saying the YouTube algorithm is the new Electronic Programming Guide (EPG) for announced legacy partners like Paramount Global and AMC Networks. That’s significant in two ways. First, it means that YouTube’s algorithm will have more say over which content is consumed from a streaming app than the app itself. That is implied from the images on the blog post highlighting individual shows disaggregated from the app either via the user interface or via YouTube’s search results. 

Second, it means that the cost of access to reach YouTube users (and 135MM Connected TV device users in the U.S.) is disaggregation: the shows are the value proposition, and the content libraries have been disaggregated from the apps. Meaning, consumers searching for the shows on YouTube will find the show, and in order to watch the shows they’ll need to sign up for a subscription to a custom version of the app within YouTube. There’s a lot less friction for consumers. But given YouTube’s scale and engagement globally,  it also is the beginning of a rationale for killing the streaming app as a business model.

“Whether it’s subscribing to Nerdist to analyze clues after watching a Yellowjackets episode on SHOWTIME® or finding makeup tutorials from Trixie Mattel to recreate your favorite looks from the Paramount+'s Original series RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars, you can now immerse yourself with all the content YouTube has to offer.”

Key Takeaway

YouTube Primetime Channels offer scale, but not much else, for legacy media streaming services as advertising headwinds grow and cord-cutting accelerates.

Total words: 1,700

Total time reading: 7 minutes