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Alphabet (GOOGL) Expands Free Streaming Lineup on Google TV

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Alphabet’s (GOOGL - Free Report) division Google continues to make strong efforts to bolster its footprint in the streaming world on the back of Google TV.

This is evident from its drive to expand the free streaming lineup on Google TV. The company is now adding 25 new free channels, which include shows like Top Gear, Baywatch and several game shows. It will also include music channels, multicultural entertainment and many more.

The latest move follows the company’s recent step regarding the inclusion of over 800 live TV and free TV channels like Tubi, Plex, Haystack News, NBC, ABC, CBS and FOX, to name a few. The lineup also includes channels featuring shows like Westworld, Law & Order: SVU and The Walking Dead.

Currently, there are 100 free built-in channels on Google TV, thanks to these additions.

Along with the addition of 25 more channels, Google is also integrating YouTube's NFL Sunday Ticket into Google TV this season in the United States. This is expected to drive Google and gain momentum among football lovers.

Growth Prospects

With its growing free streaming offering, Google is well-poised to capitalize on the growing demand for free ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) and channels.

Due to high inflation, customers are cutting down on their discretionary spending, which in turn is hurting the subscriber base of paid streaming services. The preference and adoption rate of free streaming services are on the rise.

Coming to other Google TV initiatives, the integration of more than 30 streaming services into Google TV to provide access to several contents from the services in one place remains noteworthy.

With this integration, users can stream content not only from YouTube TV and Google TV but also from Disney’s Disney+, Amazon’s (AMZN - Free Report) Prime Video, Hulu, HBO Max, HBO Go, Comcast’s (CMCSA - Free Report) Peacock, Comedy Central, Pluto TV, Viki/Rakuten, Fox Now, Paramount+ and ABC, to name a few.

Google strives to deliver an enhanced video streaming experience to its users with the abovementioned efforts. This, in turn, is expected to accelerate the adoption rate of Google TV in the near term, which is likely to aid the performance of the Google Services segment.

Google Services contributes the most to Alphabet’s top line.

Revenues from the Google Services business increased 5.5% year over year to $66.3 billion, accounting for 88.8% of the total third-quarter revenues. Our model projects the segment’s revenues at $267.05 billion for 2023, reflecting a rise of 5.3% from 2022’s level.

With consistent efforts, Alphabet, which carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), remains well-poised to rapidly penetrate the booming global video-streaming market. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Per a Precedence Research report, the underlined market is expected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2030, seeing a CAGR of 18.5% between 2022 and 2030.

Solid prospects of GOOGL in this booming market are likely to instill investor optimism in the stock.

The stock has returned 50% on a year-to-date basis.

Competitive Scenario

Like Google, Roku (ROKU - Free Report) recently announced a collaboration with Comcast-owned NBCUniversal (“NBCU”) to bring new FAST linear content offerings to The Roku Channel. These offerings include a variety of fan-favorite programming from the NBCU Global Distribution library.

This collaboration between Roku and NBCUniversal aims to provide viewers with a wide range of popular content options, expanding the offerings available on The Roku Channel.

Meanwhile, Amazon offers a completely free streaming service with thousands of hit movies, shows and Originals called Amazon Freevee, which is an ad-supported video-on-demand streaming service.

Nevertheless, Alphabet’s deepening focus on strengthening its FAST will likely continue to bolster its competitive position against the above-mentioned peers.


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