Netflix; YouTube

Netflix today all but scoffed at the possibility of joining a streaming bundle and poked smaller rivals for investing heavily in content that generates “relatively small viewing.” But when YouTube came up on a post-earnings video call, there was plenty of respect.

Recent Nielsen data showed YouTube made up nearly 10% of all television viewing in the U.S. last month. Netflix was lower, at 8.4%, albeit the highest for a subscription service. Streaming viewership hit a record overall share topping 40%.

One analyst asked execs how Netflix plans to take share from YouTube, if that’s a focus.

It’s not, at least publicly. Data shows that “Netflix and YouTube are the clear leaders,” said Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos. Netflix is focused on the rest of total TV time — about 80%, primarily linear and streaming — “that isn’t going either to us or to YouTube … So that’s a ton.”

“We clearly do compete with YouTube in certain segments of their business. And we certainly compete with them for time and attention,” he said. But, ticking off “the most watched and talked about” and high profile, Emmy nominated content, he said, “our teasers and trailers and behind the scenes, clips, and all those kinds of things are incredibly popular on YouTube. So, in that way, we kind of feed each other pretty nicely.”

Co-CEO Greg Peters added that the services carry very different kinds of content. Netflix “fulfills an important and differentiated need both for consumers, who really want amazing, spectacle movies and TV shows … and for creators, who want partners that can share in the risk that’s inherent in bringing those stories to life.”

He gave a shout out to Stranger Things to Wednesday to Outer Banks. “It’s really hard to imagine how that kind of big creative bet would happen, would be possible, within YouTube’s model.”

“It’s very competitive out there [but] we also feel confident that our model works well for consumers, it works well for creators, and it works well for our business.”