The streaming wars come down to 2: YouTube v. Netflix

For many years, Netflix executives bristled at the notion that the company really had a rival. Not Hollywood powerhouses like Disney, nor tech giants like Amazon. Instead, Reed Hastings, the company’s co-founder, insisted at one point that Netflix competed with people’s desire to socialise, or to go to sleep.

But there’s no hiding from YouTube.

Netflix and YouTube are increasingly locked in a fierce battle for control over the television set, a rivalry that even Netflix’s executives can no longer deny.