With virus data continuing to hit new highs, and most schools across the country either not wanting to reopen or unable to find teachers willing to brave the classroom, and businesses finding just enough productivity to continue with WFH policies, households are buckling down for another few months of life mostly at home.
That means another few months of a divided market, with winners and losers divvied up on this basis.
One area that continues to get a look from momentum and value traders alike is the independent streaming media space, as users keep adding services and stocking up on new forms of entertainment.
With that in mind, we take a look at a few interesting OTT and other media plays catering to this dynamic that may get more play from the markets in coming days, weeks, and months, including: Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS), Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV), Valiant Eagle Inc (OTCMKTS:PSRU), and Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT).
Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) creates and licenses multimedia content for toddlers to tweens worldwide. The company offers Rainbow Rangers, an animated series about the adventures of seven magical girls; Llama Llama, an animated series; SpacePop is a music and fashion driven animated property; Thomas Edison’s Secret Lab, a STEM-based comedy adventure series; and Warren Buffet’s Secret Millionaire’s Club, an animated series for kids.
It also develops animated series, such as Superhero Kindergarten and Baby Genius. In addition, the company acts as a licensing agent for Llama Llama. It serves various customers and partners, including broadcasters, consumer products licensees, manufacturers, wholesalers, and retailers.
Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) just announced the debut of the first toys from Fisher-Price, a division of Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT), for the hit original preschool series, Rainbow Rangers, now available at Walmart (NYSE:WMT) stores across the U.S., Walmart.com and Amazon.
According to the release, the “Team Rainbow Rangers” multipack (MSRP: $24.99, ages 3+) features characters—Rosie Redd, Mandarin Orange, Anna Banana, Pepper Mintz, Bonnie Blueberry, Indigo Allfruit, Lavender LaViolette and Floof—from the popular Rainbow Rangers series, currently airing on Nick Jr. in the U.S., Nickelodeon Latin America, China’s CCTV and other key territories around the world. Each unique and diverse character represents a superpower, including super strength, music power, animal whisperer, invisibility, super vision, super speed, micro-power! The launch of the Rainbow Rangers’ toys will be supported by a comprehensive national advertising and promotional campaign, including television advertising, widespread social media and influencer programs, a customer appreciation initiative, new content, and more.
The context for this announcement is a bit of a bid, with shares acting well over the past five days, up about 9% in that timeframe.
Genius Brands International Inc (NASDAQ:GNUS) pulled in sales of $335K in its last reported quarterly financials, representing top line growth of -72.6%. In addition, the company is battling some balance sheet hurdles, with cash levels struggling to keep up with current liabilities ($5.7M against $19.3M, respectively).
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) operates through Concerts, Ticketing, and Sponsorship & Advertising segments. The Concerts segment promotes live music events in its owned or operated venues, and in rented third-party venues; operates and manages music venues; and produces music festivals and creates associated content. The Ticketing segment manages the ticketing operations, including the provision of ticketing software and services to clients, as well as ticket resale services; and offers online access for customers relating to ticket and event information through its primary Websites, livenation.com and ticketmaster.com.
The Sponsorship & Advertising segment sells sponsorships and placement of advertising, including signage, online advertising, and promotional programs, as well as live streaming and music-related content; and ads across its distribution network of venues, events, and Websites.
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) just announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, with highlights including: 86% of Fans Opting to Keep Tickets for Rescheduled Shows, 19 Million Tickets Sold to More Than 4,000 Concerts and Festivals Scheduled for 2021, $800 Million Cost Reduction Program Target in 2020, and $1.4 Billion Cash Management Program Target in 2020.
“Over the past three months, our top priority has been strengthening our financial position to ensure that we have the liquidity and flexibility to get through an extended period with no live events. Our expectation is that live events will return at scale in the summer of 2021, with ticket sales ramping up in the quarters leading up to these shows.”
It will be interesting to see if the stock can break out of its recent sideways action. Over the past week, the stock is net flat, and looking for something new to spark things.
Live Nation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:LYV) generated sales of $74.1M, according to information released in the company’s most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of -94.6% on the top line. In addition, the company is battling some balance sheet hurdles, with cash levels struggling to keep up with current liabilities ($3.3B against $3.5B, respectively).
Valiant Eagle Inc (OTCMKTS:PSRU) is focused on energizing entertainment in television, film, Internet, and social media. This is a publicly traded corporation focused on the energizing of celebrity entertainment, social media, and TV communications. PSRU aims to achieve an unparalleled advancement towards media through music, sports and, with respect to the millennial generation, through technology.
Valiant Eagle, Inc. looks to fill the void left by ineffective media approaches with assets like XMG, Providence Films, and OKTV. XMG has a portfolio of over two dozen streaming and broadcast channels, each in its own specific niche or micro-niche and ranging from sports, cannabis, music, children’s entertainment, fitness, horror, to many others.
Valiant Eagle Inc (OTCMKTS:PSRU) recently announced that selected ABA games will be carried on multiple Valiant Eagle Inc. platforms beginning this season. “We are very excited about this relationship,” stated ABA CEO, Joe Newman. He continues, “Valiant Eagle (VE) is a publicly-traded corporation focused on the energizing of entertainment in television, the Internet and social media. Their aim is to achieve unparalleled advances in those media through content featuring Music, Sports, Entertainment focused on the millennial generation through Technology. It’s a perfect fit and we are very proud to be a part of this fast-growing media company.”
“The Internet does not automatically provide fulfillment, opportunity or happiness to all who use it,” added Valiant Eagle CEO, Xavier Mitchell. “We look to fill this void by feeding high-quality, fulfilling program content to IPhones, Android phones, tablets, computers and smart TVs. The ABA, with its combination of exciting basketball combined with musical entertainment fits our programming criteria perfectly and adds much to our media platforms. We will be focusing on games from the Far West Division, the league’s largest division.”
Even in light of this news, PSRU has had a rough past week of trading action, with shares sinking something like -15% in that time. That said, chart support is nearby, and we may be in the process of constructing a nice setup for some movement back the other way.
Valiant Eagle Inc (OTCMKTS:PSRU) generated sales of $139K, according to information released in the company’s most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 131.6% on the top line. In addition, the company has a strong balance sheet, with cash levels far exceeding current liabilities ($92K against $23K).
Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) provides audio streaming services in the United States, the United Kingdom, Luxembourg, and internationally. It operates through two segments, Premium and Ad-Supported.
The company offers unlimited online and offline high-quality streaming access to its catalog of music and podcasts without commercial breaks to its subscribers. It also provides on-demand online access to its catalog of music and unlimited online access to the catalog of podcasts to its subscribers with no subscription fees, and sales, marketing, contract research and development, and customer support services.
Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) just announced financial results for the second fiscal quarter of 2020 ending June 30, 2020.
According to the release, growth “in North America exceeded our expectations, accelerating more than 200 bps this quarter relative to growth in Q2 last year. We saw retention continue to improve in Q2. This is on top of the gains we saw in North America throughout 2019. India also outperformed our forecast this quarter thanks to strong performance from marketing campaigns in the region. Latin America and Rest of World continue to see the fastest growth, with those regions growing 33% and 58% Y/Y, respectively.”
Even in light of this news, SPOT has had a rough past week of trading action, with shares sinking something like -2% in that time. That said, chart support is nearby, and we may be in the process of constructing a nice setup for some movement back the other way. Over the past month, shares of the stock have suffered from clear selling pressure, dropping by roughly -9%.
Spotify Technology SA (NYSE:SPOT) generated sales of $2.1B, according to information released in the company’s most recent quarterly financial report. That adds up to a sequential quarter-over-quarter growth rate of 2.2% on the top line. In addition, the company is battling some balance sheet hurdles, with cash levels struggling to keep up with current liabilities ($2B against $3.1B, respectively).
