What really keeps Hollywood up at night

What’s increasingly alarming Hollywood executives may surprise those at a remove from Tinseltown: YouTube. The platform has become the world’s largest, with more than 2 billion users in upwards of 100 countries and 10 million-plus subscribers to its YouTube TV service. No longer just a home for cat and conspiracy videos, YouTube is now a haven for live sports, television shows, and even the Academy Awards. Indeed, the December announcement that the awards show would exclusively be shown on YouTube for free starting in 2029 signaled to many that the service was moving more decisively into the heart of Hollywood—and perhaps even positioning itself as a peer to the industry’s studios and networks. YouTube’s growth has been fueled, in part, by the artificial intelligence boom. AI tools can now give user-generated content a professional sheen, democratizing a level of production once reserved for well-funded film and television companies.