Once upon a time, the goal of almost every television show was “syndication,” in which it reached enough episodes and was sufficiently popular that other networks would buy it for airtime at odd hours. This is why you can watch, say, “Friends” on TBS in the afternoon. But what if a streaming service tried to do as much with its original content? That’s what Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) is looking into now, and it’s farther along than you might think.
Pick the best stocks and maximize your portfolio:
- Discover top-rated stocks from highly ranked analysts with Analyst Top Stocks!
- Easily identify outperforming stocks and invest smarter with Top Smart Score Stocks
Back in 2022, Amazon bought MGM—the entire studio and its library—for $8.5 billion. That left Amazon with a lot of content on its hands. Throw in Amazon’s plans to drop $1 billion on films for theatrical release, and that means there will be plenty more content available in the coming months. Just for starters—barring any further development—the library involved would include around 4,000 movies and 17,000 television show episodes.
Amazon managed to post solid wins for the first quarter, as detailed by its earnings report, but the near-term future for the massive conglomerate didn’t exactly look bright. This move, however, might turn that around. With so many streaming services out there looking for content to distinguish themselves from the other outlets and spending to develop new content tightening, going back to the well of catalog titles might be just the way to go. Amazon’s already been moving some originals to Freevee, so other outlets getting in makes some sense.
Amazon stock is still considered a Strong Buy by analyst consensus, thanks to a whopping 36 Buy ratings to just one Hold. With an average price target of $135.94 per share, it also offers 28.56% upside potential.
