Entertainment giant Comcast (CMCSA) recently landed a bit of a coup to one of the best captive audiences on Earth. Well, not quite on Earth, but rather several thousand feet above it. Specifically, Comcast got together with United Airlines (UAL) to bring a curated entertainment experience to United flights. The move was good enough for investors, and they gave Comcast a nearly 1.5% boost in Friday’s trading.
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United flights will now feature a “…curated Peacock channel” alongside its onboard viewing experience from the screens built into seat backs. With the addition of Peacock, United can now offer over 1,600 hours of content for passengers to enjoy during their flights. Right now, there is not a whole lot of Peacock content involved, with Season 4 of The Traitors in play, alongside All Her Fault, Poker Face, and The Paper. More titles will be included regularly, and the fact that Twisted Metal is not involved, or even Saturday Night Live reruns, strikes me as a huge missed opportunity.
United’s director of inflight entertainment Dominic Green noted, “With these popular series from Peacock, we’re introducing a standout lineup of widely recognized series to our seatback screens and personal device entertainment, further strengthening our premium inflight entertainment offering and giving customers more engaging ways to spend their time in the air.”
Change of Possession
The news was not all good for Comcast, though, as reports note its Xfinity cable and television service will no longer involve the NFL Network. ESPN, a Disney (DIS) property, officially completed acquisition, and will likely be bringing it to ESPN or possibly as part of a future Disney+ bundle.
Disney, meanwhile, took the opportunity to twist the knife in a statement, saying, “We understand how disappointing and disruptive this is for football fans who have lost access to NFL Network and RedZone Channel as part of their Xfinity TV lineup. We proposed keeping these channels available while we continued good-faith negotiations, but unfortunately, Comcast declined and took them down. Despite this, we remain fully committed to reaching a fair agreement and restoring access to our best-in-class NFL programming as quickly as possible.”
Is Comcast Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on CMCSA stock based on four Buys, nine Holds and one Sells assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 21.53% loss in its share price over the past year, the average CMCSA price target of $33.04 per share implies 21.45% upside potential.
