YouTube is offering popular channels millions of dollars to upload their videos exclusively to its platform for a set period of time, a move aimed at halting Netflix Inc.'s pursuit of its biggest stars, according to people familiar with the conversations.

The payments would come in a couple of different forms. YouTube has discussed directly financing some programs and has also offered to allot a portion of major brand deals to creators. While YouTube has not finalized deals with any creators, it is close to an agreement with several partners, said the people, who declined to be identified because the negotiations are sensitive and ongoing.

YouTube has also told creators that signing deals with Netflix carries consequences, according to the people. Creators who release videos on Netflix at the same time will be less likely to be featured in YouTube marketing campaigns or at events, and they would be excluded from collecting a share of proceeds from some major brand campaigns.

Netflix, meanwhile, has been pursuing agreements with dozens of prominent YouTubers, paying creators such as Alan Chikin Chow and Nick DiGiovanni to post their videos on YouTube and Netflix concurrently. The company remains in active conversations with dozens of other creators, channels and programs, including a celebrity talk show.

The Netflix deals appeal to creators because they offer a way to get paid millions of additional dollars for videos they are already making while exposing their programming to new viewers. Netflix has more than 325 million subscribers. YouTube, however, has told creators that cross-posting to both platforms hurts viewership on YouTube and conveys the idea that channels are deprioritizing the streaming platform as their primary distribution outlet.

Some creators have already decided against working with Netflix. The service requires them to deliver videos days in advance, which is not how many creators operate, and it has also asked creators to remove certain brand sponsorships from their videos.

Two decades of friendly rivalry

YouTube and Netflix have led streaming video for the last 20 years, and for most of that time they were friendly competitors operating largely in separate universes. Netflix was the king of subscription streaming, focused on more expensive, Hollywood-style films and TV shows. YouTube was the undisputed leader in user-generated content, birthing a new generation of stars that people primarily watched on mobile devices. YouTube's past efforts to fund original programming failed to produce many hit programs, and one of those shows went on to become a big hit for Netflix.

The line between the two sites has blurred in recent years. YouTube prioritized getting people to watch on television and now accounts for more viewership on those devices than any other service. It has chased TV advertising dollars and taken the rights to major live events such as the Academy Awards and the National Football League. More than 2 billion people log in to YouTube each month, by the company's own count, and Netflix — after introducing a cheaper, ad-supported subscription tier in 2022 — now competes for much of the same television advertising money. Netflix, which has long promoted its titles on YouTube, has licensed the rights to popular shows like CoComelon. It sees YouTube stars as a way to draw in younger viewers and boost the amount of time its users spend on the platform.

YouTube's calculus

The competition has intensified over the past year as Netflix has stepped up its pursuit of YouTube's most popular channels, and YouTube has weighed whether to respond. Chief Executive Officer Neal Mohan has long said that creators who do deals with competitors — be they Instagram or Amazon Prime Video — tend to drive viewers back to YouTube. Few of these creators are leaving YouTube, which remains their primary distribution outlet, and funding any individual channel risks aggravating the thousands of channels that receive no cash.

YouTube still does not want to serve as a studio for creators, which would involve funding and providing creative direction. But in recent weeks, Mohan and his team decided that the steady stream of creators now posting on YouTube and Netflix at the same time was a problem that needed to be addressed. It is harder to sell advertisers on the appeal and value of a video on YouTube if it is also available on Netflix. The stakes are considerable: Alphabet Inc., YouTube's parent company, reported more than $36 billion in YouTube advertising revenue in 2024, money that is shared with creators through the Partner Program YouTube launched in 2007.

This is not the first time YouTube has responded to competitors in this manner. It previously offered money to creators who declined deals with Vessel, a startup co-founded and formerly led by Jason Kilar that was trying to get social media creators to post on its app before YouTube. Vessel shut down in 2016. YouTube also created a product for short-form video to compete with TikTok. What remains to be seen is whether the new payments stay limited to a handful of top channels or become a lasting fixture of YouTube's dealings with creators — and how Netflix responds if fewer stars are willing to post on both services at the same time.

To contact the author of this story: Lucas Shaw in Los Angeles at lshaw31@bloomberg.net. This story was originally featured on Fortune.com.