Streaming Wars Stocks: The Biggest Winner and Biggest Potential Loser
The streaming wars aren’t cooling down now that Disney+ is live. In fact, they’re just starting to heat up. With all the players in this game, though, it takes time to sort out who’s hot and who’s not. Today, I’m going to go through some of the biggest streaming wars stocks on the market right now. And I’ll reveal which one has the potential to be the biggest loser and which one could wind up the biggest winner.
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There are so many streaming services coming to market these days, it’s hard to keep them all straight. But each one has its own positive and negative takeaways. And one stock alone is poised to bring investors the biggest profits, while another has the farthest to fall. With pretty much everybody in the entertainment game launching their own channel, let’s take a closer look.
The Biggest Loser Out of the Streaming Wars Stocks, Has Too Much at Stake
Walt Disney Co (NYSE:DIS) launched its own Disney+ service on Nov. 11. And even though that service got off to a rocky start, nobody expects it to fail. With the entire Disney canon behind it (including Pixar, The Simpsons and the Marvel and Star Wars franchises), few viewers will cancel just because of a few opening day glitches.
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And with Disney’s recent acquisition of Hulu, the world’s second-tier streaming service has shored up its legacy. It’ll be home for the more adult fare Disney doesn’t want to include on its own streaming channel. Not to mention, for the moment, subscriptions to Hulu and ESPN+ are bundled with Disney+.
Of course, amid all this talk, we can’t avoid the 800-pound gorilla in the room—Netflix Inc (NASDAQ:NFLX). One of the fabled FANG tech stocks (along with Facebook, Amazon and Google), Netflix has the most to lose in this game. With a solid first mover advantage, NFLX spent the past few years sitting pretty atop the streaming world. But right now, that only means it has the farthest to fall.
With everybody and their brother launching streaming services—including Amazon, Apple, AT&T, NBCUniversal, WarnerMedia and more—NFLX may not have access to some of the content that’s built its empire. Of course, the company saw this day coming. They’ve been producing original content for quite some time, even releasing their most recent Martin Scorsese-helmed film, The Irishman, in theaters.
But when you’ve been moving in an arena of small players, first mover advantage can only take you so far. Eventually, as more content is offered exclusively on different channels, cord cutters will have to decide which streaming services they want to keep. And the question is whether Netflix will make the cut.
The Biggest Winner of the Streaming Wars Isn’t Who You Think
So, who’s the biggest winner, then, among the streaming wars stocks? Could it be Disney with all their studio offerings? Or maybe it’s going to be one of the other studios that corners the market?
Well, whoever wins the content portion of the streaming wars will still need one more thing to bring home the prize—a device to stream their content over. That’s where Roku Inc (NASDAQ:ROKU) comes in.
Roku launched their own streaming service in 2017. And it’s pretty lackluster. Their current leading piece of content is Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1984 action flick The Terminator. Now, that may be a classic movie, but it’s over 35 years old now. With the breadth of competition in this arena, Roku stock tumbled the other week as investors figured their streaming service could never compete.
But one thing investors didn’t keep in mind is that Roku is currently the largest streaming platform in the United States. Installed on over 41 million devices in the US alone (including multiple brands of Smart TVs), Roku has a lead over other device manufacturers like Amazon, Google and Apple. And as more and more Americans cut the cord, they’ll have to go somewhere to get the content they want. That’s what Roku is banking on. And that’s the kind of technology I’d put my money on right now.
But of course, in today’s world, there are more technological advances occurring each moment. And InvestorPlace analyst and editor, Louis Navellier wants to reveal to you the one piece of technology he considers the “Master Key” for the world’s next industrial revolution. It’s bigger than Roku. And it’s bigger than the streaming wars. So, don’t wait. Click here to discover the next industrial revolution’s Master Key right now.
As of this writing, Michael Adams did not hold a position in any of the aforementioned securities.
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