Even Google's money could not overcome the wrong approach to take on Netflix and Amazon. (read Bloomberg article here)

YouTube is not and never will be 'destination viewing.'

The brand is 'damaged' in the sense that anyone can publish just about anything with no regards to video quality. Nothing wrong with that and it's been hugely successful to the tune of $15 billion in ad sales. Trying to introduce 'traditional, quality network style programming' that people are supposedly going to pay for AFTER you've established that 'YouTube is for anyone,' is a near impossible hill to climb.

And it was wholly the wrong approach.

For instance, YouTube could have led the way with eSports the moment that showed up on the horizon. Before Turner, ESPN, and ABC jumped on the bandwagon, YouTube could have locked itself in as the exclusive distribution for the eSports leagues. That would have been money well spent.

Go where Netflix and Amazon aren't. There are millions of eyeballs out there worth billions of dollars in streaming content. And it doesn't cost billions to get into the game if you're smart.