What does the Netflix-Warner Bros. deal mean for the future of streaming?

Netflix announced it will buy Warner Bros. Discovery for $72 billion in one of the most colossal deals in recent Hollywood history. The deal gives the streaming giant control of rival HBO Max and a storied film studio.

The deal is sure to shift the streaming landscape. Here’s an update on the industry, past consolidations, and the ongoing streaming vs. cable battle.

Who streams? Who still watches cable?

Streaming is king. A large majority of American consumers, 83%, use streaming services, according to a 2025 survey by Pew Research Center. Only 36% still subscribe to cable or satellite television.

Age matters. Streaming is nearly universal among consumers under 50. By contrast, only 65% of seniors use streaming services, Pew Research found.

The typical streaming customer subscribes to four services and pays $69 a month, according to Deloitte research.

Gen Z and millennials are more active streamers. They subscribe to five services, on average. Half of younger streamers say they’ve cancelled a streaming subscription in the last six months, a habit called churning.

If the goal of cord-cutters was to save money, they’ve succeeded. Cable and satellite customers pay $125 a month, Deloitte found.

Among streaming services, Netflix is king

Among streaming services, Netflix reigns supreme. Here are the top streaming services, according to Pew Research:

  • Netflix (72% of adults watch programming on the service)
  • Amazon Prime Video (67%)
  • Hulu (52%)
  • Disney+ (48%)
  • Paramount+ (44%)
  • Peacock (41%)
  • HBO Max (41%)
  • Apple TV+ (25%)

With the prospective merger of Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery, analysts say, Netflix is looking even more like the winner of the streaming wars.

“The global media industry stands at the precipice of historic transformation, with [Warner Bros. Discovery] positioned at the epicenter,” said Bank of America analyst Jessica Reif Ehrlich in a recent report, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Why are streaming services consolidating?

Streaming services have struggled to turn a profit because they need to attract many millions of paying customers to cover the costs of all that programming.

The struggle for profitability has brought consolidation. Disney bought Hulu in 2019. WarnerMedia and Discovery merged in 2022, leading to a combined HBO Max and Discovery+. Paramount and Skydance Media announced a merger earlier this year.

Streaming-service mergers have entered the zeitgeist. In the 2025 Apple TV series "The Studio," the season finale pivoted on suspense around the potential acquisition of the fictional Continental Studios by Amazon.

Some critics fear the Netflix-Warner deal will make Netflix too big. The merger could give the combined business more than 30% of the streaming market, “a threshold traditionally viewed as presumptively problematic under antitrust law,” U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, a California Republican, wrote in a Nov. 17 letter to the Justice Department.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Who rules the streaming world after the Netflix-Warner deal?

Reporting by Daniel de Visé, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect