Yes, watching video on your phone, in short bites, is “like” TV, and arguably some of that content can come from full-fledged “TV shows” with diverse talent and production companies and cable distribution…
But surely it has not escaped Stewart’s notice that a shocking amount of eyeball time is now on video content that is not produced by mainstream media – instead made by small creators & online teams working from their homes. And if you doubt the impact of that, go down to Walmart or Target and spend some time on the toy aisle. The shelves are PACKED with Baby Shark, Cocomelon, Busy Beavers, Blippi… all of these streaming-first non-mainstream brands that are mostly famous because of Youtube.
It’s odd, because Stewart himself is the one who benefited when cable TV made “narrowcasting” a thing. And now that there are even narrower narrowcasts, he can’t seem to see that it’s an existential threat to his way of making content.