Yahoo Finance Live checks out shares of Netflix and Verizon after their partnership to expand the service provider’s streaming footprint.
Video Transcript
DAVE BRIGGS: All right, my play is a twofer with Verizon and Netflix teaming up. Verizon customers will get Netflix premium free for a year if they subscribe to another service through its new streaming marketplace. Now this is all according to the Wall Street Journal. You’ll need to buy a yearlong or season-long subscription through Plus Play, which allows customers to manage all their subscriptions in one spot. The services included in the deal include NFL+ Premium, NBA League Pass, the meditation app Calm, the Peloton app, the language learning app Duolingo, and AMC’s streaming service AMC+.
Now a recent JD Power survey showed 60% of Americans had at least four streaming services. That’s up from 40% just two years ago, hence the need for this. This move attempts to simplify the managing of all those various streaming services. So let’s check out the stocks. Verizon just down, well, slightly, about 1%. Netflix also a slight trim. Neither reacted to the story, needless to say, but it is an interesting partnership, teaming up in this.
JOSH SCHAFER: What stuck out to me there, Dave, is middleman between streamers and customers– that sounds like cable, right, and where we’ve been before in some ways. I understand it’s streaming, and we’re creating a middleman there. But I feel like we’re working in a little bit of a circle here. And I’m curious just what consumer demand is going to be for this product. Would I rather do that or just have all these on my smart TV? Do I need Verizon here to help me? I’m not really sure–
DAVE BRIGGS: [INAUDIBLE] free year of premium Netflix.
JOSH SCHAFER: But does it gain you new customers?
SEANA SMITH: How sticky is that?
JOSH SCHAFER: Does it gain you new customers and extended revenue year over year? Or does it just bring you in the first year? Maybe it does.
DAVE BRIGGS: I just think no.
SEANA SMITH: Yeah, I think– I have a hard time believing that this is going to work out in the long run, just as someone who I have Fios. I also have a number of streaming services. I think it would be very convenient. I’m not willing, though, to pay more every single year in order to have this luxury. So I get the payoff in the beginning. You’re going to get Netflix and a couple of other streaming things for free. I don’t know if that’s going to be enough to make that customer pretty sticky, but we’ll see.
DAVE BRIGGS: Managing them all in one spot sounds appealing to this guy.
