Live sports have been a big part of streaming for a while now, and it is no different for streaming giant Netflix (NFLX). In fact, Netflix recently landed the rights to Major League Baseball’s opening game, and it delivered quite the show. It was not a perfect delivery, but it certainly demonstrated that Netflix really can handle major sporting events beyond football. Netflix shares were up modestly in the closing minutes of Thursday’s trading.
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Indeed, Netflix took the game between the New York Yankees and the San Francisco Giants about as far as it could go. It brought out a character from one of its biggest streaming properties, Wednesday—specifically the disembodied hand known as Thing—to throw out the first pitch.
Netflix wanted to make a big deal out of the game for a good reason: to recoup the sheer cost of it. Netflix is paying $60 million a year for the rights to the Field of Dreams game, the Home Run Derby, and opening day, among others. While Netflix certainly delivered a solid game—there were some issues with the scorebug tool, reports note, among other things—some took exception to the sheer amount of Netflix-related promotion Netflix included, like Thing.
Netflix’s Horror Chops
We may be a long way out from spooky season, but Netflix is still delivering some excitement even going into spring with Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. Described as a “wedding horror series,” the end result is actually quite good, even though the pace is a bit meandering, according to one report.
Horror is a difficult genre for television, because horror is perhaps best consumed in small, dense blocks that hit quickly and end only slightly less so. I empathize; when I discovered there was a horror series called Two Sentence Horror Stories, my first thought was, how do they stretch two sentences into a half-hour? And that, apparently, is what happened to Something Very Bad is Going to Happen. Though the fact that Netflix is keeping the supply topped off is a point well worth considering.
Is Netflix Stock a Good Buy Right Now?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on NFLX stock based on 31 Buys and nine Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 5.52% loss in its share price over the past year, the average NFLX price target of $114.97 per share implies 23.16% upside potential.
