Comcast (CMCSA; CMCSK) is expected to report first quarter results before market open on Thursday, April 29, with a conference call scheduled for 8:30 am ET. What to watch for:
1. FUTURE UPSIDE: Ahead of quarterly results, Raymond James analyst Frank Louthan upgraded Comcast to Outperform from Market Perform with a $61 price target. The analyst believes there is future NBCUniversal upside from high single digit strength, Peacock subscriber growth, improved theatrical revenue, and phased theme park reopenings. Louthan also contended that any Title II-related fallout likely won't join the fold until at least 2022.
2. SPORTS DEALS: NBCUniversal and the NFL announced last month an 11-year extension and expansion for NBC Sports to continue as the home of Sunday Night Football. With the new agreement, which begins with the 2023 NFL season, NBC and Peacock, NBCUniversal's streaming service, will present Sunday Night Football through 2033 - a span of 28 seasons for NBC as the home of the NFL's premier primetime package. In addition, beginning with the upcoming 2021 season, Peacock will stream all NBC Sunday Night Football games and the Football Night in America studio show. Peacock will also produce a new exclusive, expanded postgame show following SNF each week. Peacock will also serve as the exclusive national home of six NFL regular-season games - one each year from 2023-28.
Meanwhile, Sports Business Journal's John Ourand and Mark Burns reported on Monday that NBC has officially pulled out of the bidding for the NHL's second TV package, Next season will now mark the first time since the 2005-2006 campaign that the network will not carry any NHL games, the authors noted.
3. COMCAST MAY HAVE OWN ROKU WITH FLEX: While Flex is financially too small to measure, Comcast potentially organically growing its own Roku (ROKU) "is an intriguing idea," MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett told investors in a research note. Xfinity Flex is a voice-controlled 4K streaming device. The analyst said that whatever the enthusiasm is for Comcast's streaming service Peacock, his clients have shown far more excitement for Flex. "In a perfect world, Flex could become a second Roku," Moffett contended. He also noted that Comcast already has "the right" content partnerships and a distribution partnership agreement with Cox. If it could get one with Charter, Flex would have a national footprint, Moffett pointed out.
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