Interesting news emerged today, featuring tech giant Alphabet (GOOGL) in the driver’s seat to destabilize another major facet of American life: National Football League (NFL) games. Word emerged about the ratings for the first NFL game shown on YouTube, and the world did not fall apart. In fact, Alphabet stock ticked up fractionally in Thursday morning’s trading as YouTube proved fertile ground for NFL viewership.
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The game in question, a Week 1 matchup between the Los Angeles Chargers and the Kansas City Chiefs—both on the road in Sao Paulo, Brazil—proved welcome. While the Chargers pulled off an underdog victory over the Chiefs, 27 to 21, the bigger upset came as YouTube demonstrated it could be a worthwhile part of the NFL broadcasting arsenal.
Anyone who went to watch the game on YouTube could do so free of charge, and a lot of people held their breath waiting for the outcome. Big numbers from YouTube would have demonstrated its potential, and potentially, shaken up the landscape as the NFL looks to potentially shuffle Sunday games. YouTube brought in 17.3 million households for the game, Nielsen numbers reported, with 16.2 million of those coming from the United States. By way of reference, Comcast’s (CMCSA) Peacock brought in 14.2 million households for an Eagles / Packers game in 2024.
Open Web in Rapid Decline
So how is the open web doing these days? To hear Google talk about it, things are great. The open web is “thriving” and search engines are sending people to more websites than ever. Except, that’s not so much the case, as noted by Google in a court filing. In fact, “…the open web is already in rapid decline…”, the report noted.
The court filing is part of a case with the United States Department of Justice, which is recommending Google spin off its advertising business. Google, of course, is resisting that, saying that such a move would “…harm…publishers who currently rely on open-web display advertising revenue.” The combination of these two points means “…Plaintiffs’ divestiture proposal would only accelerate that decline….”
Is Alphabet a Buy, Hold or Sell?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Moderate Buy consensus rating on GOOGL stock based on 28 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 54.61% rally in its share price over the past year, the average GOOGL price target of $233.39 per share implies 2.57% downside risk.
