Should Viacom Increase Focus On Alternative Streaming Media For MTV?

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Viacom‘s (NASDAQ:VIA) MTV is facing a significant decline in its TV viewership. Its erstwhile popular MTV Video Music Awards broadcast saw a 34% drop in viewership this year, drawing an audience of 6.5 million viewers on television. However, online viewership of the program increased significantly from 4.4 million streams on Facebook last year to 45.8 million streams this year. Viacom earns a significant amount of its revenues from advertisements on traditional TV and while the increase in streaming views indicates that the popularity of video music awards is still high, users preference for alternative modes of viewership will impact Viacom’s revenues negatively. We believe as viewing preferences of consumers change, a strategy to monetize MTV’s content differently can help Viacom to drive revenues in the long term.

See our complete analysis for Viacom

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 Focus On Plex Play and Video On Demand

Last year, Viacom launched a suite of mobile apps under the brand “Viacom Plex Play” which allows users to view its content of popular channels including MTV on their smartphones.  However, it is still early days for Viacom to monetize this model and attract advertisers to its video on demand platform. The company still relies heavily on TV advertisements for revenues and hence declining TV ratings of MTV are a cause of concern. According to our estimates, Viacom’s MTV U.S. advertising revenues will decline from $478 million in 2016 to nearly $415 million by the end of our forecast period.

Viacom can compensate for this loss in revenues by generating revenues through alternative streaming media. As players such as Facebook and Twitter look to live stream popular events, Viacom can look at monetizing this avenue with its popular MTV content.

We believe MTV content still appeals to the younger generation which is an important segment for advertisers. However, as viewership declines on the traditional TV platform, it is essential for Viacom to look at ways to attract advertisers to alternative streaming media where viewership is increasing. The company is taking several initiatives to distribute its content on mobile devices such as launch of Plex Play, partnering with Dish’s Sling TV and launch of BET Play its direct to consumer on demand service.  Monetizing alternate streaming media is critical for MTV since it is aimed towards the younger generation which prefers to watch videos on mobile devices and does not want to spend on expensive Pay TV subscription. Viacom’s focus on attracting advertisers to these platforms will be critical for its revenues in the long term.

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