• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, Yesterday

Paramount Skydance's deal to buy Warner Bros. Discovery winning over a Netflix offer may still seem to be a major hit to the leading premium streaming platform

But many believe this is not the biggest threat for Netflix. Increasingly, that threat remains YouTube -- so Netflix’s outgoing executive chairman and founder, Reed Hastings, believes.

The logic involves YouTube's seemingly nonstop growth. Not only is it the go-to video home for young adults for user-generated content, but increasingly more slick and professional-looking content.

And then there are all the growing video podcasts that seem to have struck the fancy of all types of consumers -- both young and old.

Perhaps that is why Netflix keeps experimenting with offering more video podcasts itself. Now and before, Netflix believes young-skewing video gaming content has a place on its platform.

This comes as Netflix increasingly has periods of slight single-digit percentage declines in viewing engagement.

Much of this is due to what analysts believe is the need for newer scripted and/or studio-driven premium content -- regular-looking TV series and movies.

That’s where WBD would have come in.

Still, this harmonizing old-school and modern video content is not easy for Netflix.

Some would say TikTok videos may also be some competition. And what about "micro-dramas" -- those one- to three-minute or so TV-series like episodes on social media platforms?

On the flip side is YouTube -- trying to extend itself that it is not just a user-generated video platform, but that it can offer more scripted content. (It does this with its YouTube Premium option).

But it is not stopping there -- YouTube is now pursuing perhaps five regular-season NFL games -- viewer-generated programming that pulls in massive ad revenue. And just to state the obvious, the competition to those games would mostly come from Netflix (as well as Amazon Prime Video).

Right now, proponents of the company’s vision believe Netflix’s failure to pursue WBD was a "nice to have, but not a necessary" acquisition. This analysis could be focused, with near-term thinking attached to the issues around softer viewing engagement.

In football, the parlance is that others may observe Netflix needs both the short-passing game as well as long, high-profile, end-zone touchdowns.