The battle for streaming video watchers is taking on super-hero proportions.

In one corner: Netflix. Flashing an arsenal of more than 50 million U.S. subscribers and the cash to lure A-list talent and franchises, from ABC hitmaker Shonda Rhimes to Marvel, the on-demand movie pioneer has increased its pressure on Hollywood studios and TV channels.

Its legacy rivals — and some new players — aren't sitting idly by. Disney, Fox, Amazon and Apple are either rolling out Netflix-competing streaming services or expanding original content to compete.

At stake is the balance of power in the entertainment industry, expected to generate $120 billion in consumer spending this year, according to consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Traditional TV and home video still dominates, at $108 billion in sales, but its market share is eroding.

"It is a little bit of an arms race. People want to get the talent they know can deliver on certain types of content," said Ezra Kucharz, a digital media consultant who previously served as an adviser to CBS CEO Leslie Moonves. "I think we are just at the beginning of it."

Disney landed perhaps the largest haymaker with its plan to pull Disney and Pixar films from Netflix in 2019 for its own streaming service.

But Netflix responded quickly by poaching Scandal and Grey's Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes from Disney-owned ABC Studios..

These two attention-getting maneuvers stood out, but they were sandwiched by several other deals, all of which exemplify the heated rivalry among the players.

Before Disney's bombshell, Netflix announced it had acquired comic book publisher Millarworld, home of franchises such as Kingsman and Kick-Ass — both of which have yielded big-screen adaptations.

Netflix also signed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen (Fargo) for a western anthology called The Ballad of Buster Scruggs to debut in 2018. And Amazon Studios' signed The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman and Skybound Entertainment, the entertainment company he founded with producer David Alpert, to a two-year deal developing exclusive TV series.

ABC on Wednesday said Carlton Cuse, the co-creator of Lost, would return to the network on a four-year deal. This comes after he has recently worked with Amazon, where the Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan series is in production, and Hulu, which has ordered a pilot for Locke & Key, an adaptation of the fantasy-horror graphic novel.

Adding to the action is the news that Apple plans to spend $1 billion on original content this year. So far, the software and iPhone maker has debuted "Planet of the Apps" and "Carpool Karaoke" and hired top execs from Sony Pictures Television.

Arms race

That $1 billion, which The Wall Street Journal expects Apple to use to acquire or produce 10 series, pales in comparison to Netflix's planned annual spending of about $6 billion this year — and $7 billion next year, Netflix's chief content officer Ted Sarandos recently told Variety.

Amazon is expected to spend about $4.5 billion, J.P. Morgan estimates, while HBO spends about $2 billion.

"It's going to be a race to outspend each other in terms of getting the best content," said Ryan Ly, a television agent at Creative Artists Agency.

Ly expects to see more high-profile defections from traditional studios to places such as Netflix, which resembles a modern-day United Artists, founded nearly a century ago as an alternative to the rest of the studio system. "They are going to back it up with real financial offerings and offer people the opportunity to appeal directly to the consumers."

That apparently helped lure Rhimes, who described the top streaming TV provider, with its lack of rules that encumber traditional TV production, as a "clear, fearless space for creators."

Netflix's investments in the creation of its own original content have become more important as it gained stature. “The more successful we get, the more anxious I get about the willingness of the networks to license their stuff to us,” Sarandos told Variety. "That’s why original content is critical, so subscribers feel like they can’t live without Netflix."

As consumers have grown comfortable with Netflix, YouTube and other broadband-delivered video, they have made it an even more prominent source for entertainment. And younger viewers' growing preference for streaming over traditional pay-TV is in part responsible for the turmoil in the creative ecosystem .

Two-thirds (65.4%) of those aged 18-to-24 would keep their streaming subscription if forced to choose between it or pay TV, found a recent survey of 2,105 adult broadband users conducted by The Diffusion Group. Among slightly older viewers (25 to 34 years of age), about 54% choose streaming. Some 72% of those aged 55-to-65 preferred pay TV.

Netflix dominates among the streaming services. In the U.S., it had eight of the top 10 programs in April-June, according to Parrot Analytics, an L.A.-based data science company that tracks global audience demand of TV content.

Netflix's 13 Reasons Why and Orange is the New Black were the top two shows over those three months. But, reflecting the growing competition from other Internet upstarts, Hulu's The Handmaid Tale came in at No.3 and Amazon's The Grand Tour and The Man in the High Castle were Nos. 10 and 11.

"Platform and content choices are increasing rapidly, and consumers are relishing the choices presented to them," says Samuel Stadler, a marketing technologist with Parrot Analytics.

Other strategic moves by Netflix include a six-episode series due in 2018 from David Letterman, adding to its growing comedy stable which already included Dave Chappelle, Louis CK, Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld, whose Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee moves to the service later this year.

Among the interesting plot twists to watch in coming days is whether Netflix will be successful bartering with Disney to keep its Marvel and Lucasfilm films on the service — and continue to team up to create content such as The Defenders series.

Live TV still remains the most popular viewing behavior, but TV networks are under pressure to evolve. CBS has already showed its hand, bringing new series Star Trek: Discovery to its CBS All Access service for 14 episodes after the network premiere on Sept. 24. Launched nearly three years ago, CBS All Access (starts at $5.99 monthly) is also the exclusive home of The Good Fight (a sequel to The Good Wife) and several other upcoming series.

Pay TV giant Comcast has teamed with AMC Networks and FX on two premium streaming services — AMC Premiere ($4.99 monthly) and FX+ ($5.99) — that give Comcast customers on-demand episodes of series such as The Walking Dead and Fargo with no commercials.

"Even twelve or 18 months ago, the industry was still trying to wrap its head around what OTT (over-the-top video) was and the implications," said Mark Ramberg, vice president of business development for media at Akamai, a networking company that has helped deliver streaming video for major global events such as the Olympics and the World Cup. "Now if you are not delivering content over the top, you are hardly relevant."

This tectonic shift in entertainment is happening much faster than anyone anticipated. Earlier this decade, one of the biggest dilemmas facing TV networks and pay-TV providers, says CAA's Ly, was the threat of the digital video recorder and its ability to skip commercials.

"In the sum total of probably less than four years, streaming services have become really competitive destinations for premium content," he said. "Everyone talked about technology disrupting the way that we consume content, but I don't think people thought it would happen as quickly and be as clear and present of a competitor as it has become. That is surprising, the timeline."

Shonda Rhimes heads to Netflix with multi-year deal

Amazon Studios lures 'Walking Dead' creator Kirkman for TV deal

Why Amazon is spending so much to rival Netflix

Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.