Streaming Year in Review 2025: Online Video Is Now an Advertising-Led Business

Old Hollywood got Wall Street's memo: "Do whatever it takes to do what Netflix is do?ing." And finally, the studios have begun making money from streaming. With the exception of NBCUniversal, the biggest leg?acy media companies all reported a profit from their direct-to-consumer (DTC) businesses in Q3 2024. They got there by variously writing down or shedding ca?ble assets, slashing jobs, hiking prices, policing pass?word-sharing, improving bundled offerings, and put?ting the full focus of their business strategy into online.