[cabalamat]

> the general public still gravitates towards more general content

I'm not sure that's true. The vast majority of the stuff I watch on YouTube is way too niche to be on television.

[kibibu]

Same, but even though I will never watch him, you can't really argue with Mr Beast's view count.

[notahacker]

I think the point is that for every Mr Beast view there are many more views of content by smaller creators, and whilst Amazon or a major network could definitely buy exclusive agreements with Mr Beast et al (and many leading stars already save a portion of their content for Patreon subscribers), they can't do that with the long tail. Plus if Mr Beast did end up exclusively on a network, YouTube's recommendation algorithms would surface other creators instead.

That's even more true in much smaller niches. Amazon and the BBC actually did pick up a couple of the top narrowboat YouTube channels (and offered them more money and viewers than YouTube ever did) but if you want to search for videos on a particular boating location or how to fix a particular issue or just to have enough content to binge watch to live the lifestyle vicariously without the expense and complications of owning a boat, only YouTube will satisfy you.

[rjh29]

You're on HN, you're not the general public.