NBCUniversal Well-Equipped to Tackle Double Strike Amid Rising Uncertainties, Analyst Express Confidence

Benchmark analyst Matthew Harrigan reiterated Comcast Corp CMCSA with a Buy and a $49 price target.

Given its overall breadth, NBCUniversal is well-positioned to handle the strike by SAG and WGA. 

The Screen Actors Guild has recommended a strike after failed discussions with studios, with a vote imminent, leading to a halt in U.S. film and TV production. Optics are negative with canceled premieres and the absence of stars at the Comicon.

While the strike poses challenges, NBCUniversal's high reality show programming component, including Peacock, remains unaffected and benefits from event movies and sports content.

NBCUniversal faces immediate structural issues, such as the reduction in linear season episodes and the absence of residuals for streaming. These are industry-wide challenges rather than specific to the company.

The double strike involves complex streaming issues, and a near-term resolution is not anticipated, but NBCUniversal's movie business has a firm release pipeline and unaffected reality show programming.

Roku, Inc ROKU and Comcast's FreeWheel partnership aims to advance ad tech for TV streaming, enabling better workflows, improved publisher yield, and seamless data targeting.

The partnership incorporates Roku's demand API with FreeWheel's TV platform and utilizes Roku's Watermark solution to prevent fraud in TV streaming.

Price Action: CMCSA shares are trading higher by 0.13% at $42.40 on the last check Thursday.

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.