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Live Sports Could Be The Next Boon For Big Tech

Courtesy of Benzinga.

Live Sports Could Be The Next Boon For Big Tech

Live sports has been one of the few remaining strongholds that traditional television has held onto, but falling NFL ratings indicate sports fans may finally be cutting their cords as well. Sports contents won’t come cheap for Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) and Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), but Pivotal analyst Brian Wieser says these streaming giants won’t shy away from forking over the big bucks.

Budget Projections

According to Wieser, sports content is necessary for streaming services to provide television-equivalent content for advertisers. Weiser uses Facebook’s recent $600 million five-year deal to broadcast Indian professional cricket as an indication of the massive size of the potential sports budgets for streaming companies.

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“Considering the tiny size of the Indian digital ad market – 1/40th the size of its equivalent in the United States – it does not seem unreasonable to assume that at some point Facebook and their peers will bid tens of billions of dollars for long-term professional sports rights fees in the US,” Wieser said.

Cuban’s Take

On Monday, Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban told CNBC that broadcast TV and the sports leagues themselves have dropped the ball in convincing fans that watching sports on TV is still a much better experience than streaming.

“Watching it from a cable or satellite provider on a regular television is a better viewing experience than watching it streaming from any source on a phone, on an iPad, or even on a television because it buffers; it impacts your bandwidth to your home,” Cuban said.

Until that dynamic changes, Cuban said leagues like the NFL need to do a better job promoting the fact that television provides the best viewing experience for sports fans.

Related Link: 12 Most Valuable Pieces Of Memorabilia In History

Pockets Of Value

Wieser says investors shouldn’t count out the stocks of traditional TV companies just yet either. Despite the fact that Pivotal is forecasting single-digit advertising revenue declines in the long term, Wieser said several television media companies currently offer investors a compelling value in the near term.

Pivotal maintains Buy ratings on Twenty-First Century Fox Inc (NASDAQ: FOXA) and Discovery Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: DISCA).

The firm also has Hold ratings on CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS), Time Warner Inc (NYSE: TWX) and Viacom, Inc. (NASDAQ: VIAB) and a Sell rating on Walt Disney Co (NYSE: DIS).

Related Link: It’s Early, But Here’s How NFL Games Are Doing On Amazon Prime Vs. Twitter

Latest Ratings for GOOG

Date Firm Action From To
Jul 2017 Deutsche Bank Maintains Buy
Jul 2017 Bank of America Maintains Buy
Jul 2017 Deutsche Bank Maintains Buy

View More Analyst Ratings for GOOG


View the Latest Analyst Ratings

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