Legacy Media Companies Shifting Top Content to Streaming, Says Analyst

Sports aside, legacy media companies are telling consumers "there is no reason to subscribe to multichannel television anymore,” LightShed Partners wrote investors Tuesday. Legacy media are shifting their most ambitious content to their own streaming platforms, away from linear TV, said analyst Richard Greenfield, and COVID-19 led to “a whole new level of pain for the legacy TV ecosystem.” With little fresh content on TV, consumer adoption of streaming video “hit warp speed.” Once consumer behavior shifts, it’s hard to shift it back, “especially when the ‘experience’ of streaming TV is so far superior to linear live TV," Greenfield said, citing on-demand programming, few to no ads and smart interfaces that learn consumers’ tastes and make viewing suggestions. The investment firm hiked its target price for Netflix stock to $630, citing “unprecedented industry scale” and a forecast of more than 300 million global subscribers by 2023. Netflix has the global scale to attract talent and create “blockbuster hits,” Greenfield said. If it’s able to hit 400 million subscribers by 2026, the company will “dictate the global zeitgeist across long form video content, including film.” Netflix stock closed Tuesday up less than a point at $493.48.