“CODA” took home the best picture prize at the Oscars on Sunday night,
and one analyst thinks the win for Apple TV+ could lead to major boost in subscribers to the streaming service.
The win for “CODA,” released on Apple TV+, is the first time a streaming service won top prize at the Academy Awards.
It bested Netflix ’s ‘Power of the Dog,’” which also was seen as a strong contender.
Wedbush’s Dan Ives said in a note prior to the Academy Awards that if Apple was to win the best picture award,
“it would catalyze more A+ talent coming to Apple first (or in the top bracket)
and could propel Cupertino’s content efforts by multiples over coming years with major paid subscriber boost.”
To date, the analyst said,
Apple’s content efforts “have been selective and lacked widespread acceptance within Hollywood as well as from consumers.”
Ives estimated that Apple has roughly 25 million paid subscribers on the platform and roughly 50 million global accounts.
Netflix (NFLX) has about 222 million subscribers.
The six Academy Award nominations for “CODA,” Ives said,
should help accelerate subscriber growth and “will give Cook & Co.
more confidence around potentially doubling their content efforts over the next year.”
“With Apple spending ~$7 billion annually on original content and having roughly $200 billion of cash on its balance sheet,
we believe the company is gearing up to ramp original content and also bid on number of upcoming sports packages
(NFL Sunday Night Ticket) coming up for contract/renewals in future years,” Ives added.
While Apple TV+ isn’t a major part of the tech giant’s overall services ecosystem,
Ives said it’s becoming a “key monetization engine for company over coming years to tap its golden and unmatched installed base.”
“CODA,” a movie about the hearing daughter of two deaf parents,
won two additional awards at the event Sunday: Troy Kotsur won best supporting actor, Sian Heder won best adapted screenplay.
Apple declined 1.1% Monday to $173.05. Wedbush has an Outperform rating on the stock and a $200 price target.
Netflix rose 0.5%. The stock has fallen almost 38% year to date.
