The battle for Warner Bros is a prelude to the real streaming war—经济学人

新闻标题：The battle for Warner Bros is a prelude to the real streaming war

副标题：Professionally made shows face tough competition from independent makers—December 11th 2025

选文类别：美国 电影行业流媒体

简单总结：Paramount和Netflix抢收购Warner Bros. Discovery，其实最大对手是youtube

个人感想：太多背景知识不知道了，终于分清传统媒体（华纳兄弟），传统＋流媒体（派拉蒙），流媒体（奈飞），社交媒体（油管，Tiktok）的区别

知识补充：

Warner Bros. Discovery 华纳兄弟探索= 传统电影公司

Netflix奈飞= 网上看电影（流媒体streaming）

Paramount （Global）派拉蒙（环球） = 老牌好莱坞内容公司 + 正在转型的流媒体

Hollywood好莱坞 = 洛杉矶的一个地区，美国电影 + 电视剧产业，美国商业娱乐生产机制

知识补充：

类型、代表、主要收入

 流媒体：Netflix / Disney+：订阅费

社交媒体：YouTube / TikTok：广告

奈飞和派拉蒙争夺华纳兄弟探索公司：Netflix’s and Paramount’s $100bn（1000亿美元） battle to buy Warner Bros Discovery has juicy plot ingredients.Paramount, a smallish studio, craves scale to compete with the big dogs. Netflix, far in the lead, wants more content for its huge library.

美国最受欢迎的视频娱乐是油管：The most popular source of video distraction in America is not Warner Bros or any of its suitors, but YouTube. The Google-owned platform accounts for 28% of streaming on TVs in America, against Netflix’s 19%.This is before you include the hours spent scrolling on mobile phones.相当于B站打败了做电视电影公司，和爱奇艺，腾讯视频等流媒体的感觉

油管视频和传统电视电影院差异正在缩小：总结一句话互相抢对方蛋糕

1：好莱坞转向小屏幕，油管转向电视用户：First, consider technology. Social platforms are suited to mobile screens, but their videos are increasingly viewed on TV: Americans spend longer watching YouTube on tv than on their phones. At the same time Hollywood is relying less on cinemas in favour of TV, and moving to even smaller screens.

2：流媒体涉及广告业务，社交平台涉及订阅业务：As streaming platforms seek new audiences, they are moving beyond subscriptions into advertising, once the turf of social media. At the same time, those social platforms are pushing into subscriptions; YouTube’s no-ad plans (which include music) have more than 125m subscribers, around the same as Warner Bros.互相抢对方蛋糕啊

3：内容重叠，流媒体引入社交媒体各种内容形式：The third area of overlap is the most contested: content. Streaming platforms are getting into formats popularised on social media. Meanwhile social platforms are showing more television-like content. 人工智能缩小特效差距Artificial intelligence is helping narrow the gap between professional visual effects and amateur ones, and making things like foreign-language dubbing available to all. 专业媒体公司入驻社交媒体发内容 Professional media firms increasingly use social channels for their distribution (you can find Economist videos on TikTok and the like).

看起来奈飞占优势，其实派拉蒙也不容小觑：It（Netflix） may be dominant in streaming, but under the broader market definition it is a smaller actor. For the same reason, Paramount is stronger than it looks. It may be only a supporting actor in Hollywood, but the Ellison family, who control it and support Donald Trump, have been named by the president as part of a group that will run the promised American version of TikTok. 可能是传统及流媒体都占有，比较稳所以可以用在TikTok上？

Summary:

Netflix and Paramount are fighting over the acquisition of Warner Bros., but the real competitor is YouTube.

Why is it YouTube? The most popular source of video distraction in America is not Warner Bros. or any of its suitors, but YouTube. The Google-owned platform accounts for 28% of streaming on TVs in America, compared with Netflix’s 19%.

The gap is slowly becoming smaller between streaming platforms (like Netflix) and social platforms (like YouTube). First, videos are increasingly viewed on TV. Hollywood is relying less on cinemas in favour of TV, and is moving to even smaller screens. Second, streaming platforms are moving beyond subscriptions into advertising, once the turf of social media, while those social platforms are pushing into subscriptions. Streaming platforms are getting into formats popularized on social media. Meanwhile, social platforms are showing more television-like content. Also, artificial intelligence is helping narrow the gap between professional visual effects and amateur ones. Above all, they are learning from each other.

Reflection：

Although this article is short, it was difficult for me, because there is so much background information I didn’t know, such as Hollywood (the American film and TV industry as a whole), Warner Bros. Discovery (a large traditional TV and movie company with a major streaming business), and Paramount (a smaller traditional media company with a streaming platform).

I also didn’t know why they want to own Warner Bros., so I did some research. The main benefit of acquiring Warner Bros. Discovery is gaining top-tier content and famous IPs (including DC—Batman and Superman—Harry Potter, HBO franchises like Game of Thrones, and Discovery’s documentary catalogue), and strong production capabilities.