Netflix had over 325 million paid memberships at the end of 2025, but concerns about subscriber engagement have grown. Although it called engagement “healthy” in its second-quarter 2026 report, it cut the What We Watched report from twice a year to once a year, and its Oct. 20 shareholder letter acknowledged a goal to accelerate view hours growth. The article argues YouTube, not Disney, is now the key competitor for attention: YouTube had over 1.7 billion unique viewers of World Cup-related videos and $11 billion in ad revenue in Q2 2026, versus Netflix's expected $2.7 billion in ad revenue for all of 2026. The bull case is that Netflix is adding live events such as football, boxing and concerts, though these rights require additional spending.
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