Altice (ATUS) Offers Novel SVOD Service From CuriosityStream

In one of the most pioneering deals in the industry, Altice USA, Inc. ATUS has inked an agreement with CuriosityStream, an award-winning factual streaming service from the founders of Discovery Channel, to offer the latter’s rich content across its distribution network. The subscription video on demand (SVoD) service will offer an unlimited access to a wide range of programs, with stunning visuals and unrivaled storytelling that demystify science, nature, history, technology, society, and lifestyle.

Altice delivers broadband, pay television, telephony services, Wi-Fi hotspot access, proprietary content and advertising services to approximately 4.9 million residential and business customers across 21 states through its Optimum and Suddenlink brands. The strategic deal will offer Optimum and Suddenlink users an immediate complimentary access to CuriosityStream content. The company further plans to add CuriosityStream to its Altice One entertainment and connectivity platform, along with the ‘On Demand’ platform and mobile apps, for a seamless viewing.

A few weeks back, Altice completed the acquisition of Cheddar, a live streaming financial news network, to augment its presence within the news domain. With this buyout, Altice extended its portfolio of high-quality news coverage across digital, mobile and linear TV formats. Cheddar perfectly complements Altice’s hyperlocal and global news offerings, which include the most watched news channel in the Optimum footprint News 12 Networks, and international and current affairs news network i24NEWS. The Cheddar and Altice businesses’ combination will likely offer more opportunities for collaborative and complementary programs, thus fortifying its presence in the cut-throat news market. The buyout further enables Altice to reach out to a wider audience pool and monetize content through its a4 advertising platform.

Altice is on track with its five-year plan to build a FTTH (fiber-to-the-home) network and deploy the company’s new home communications hub. The company believes the FTTH network will be more resilient with reduced maintenance requirements, fewer service outages and lower power usage, which is likely to lead to further cost efficiencies. This network will allow Altice to meet demand for increasing speeds and support evolving technologies, such as the expected transition of mobile networks to 5G, and enable it to capitalize on associated revenue-growth opportunities. Additionally, the company is building a next-generation fiber network capable of delivering broadband speeds of 10 Gbps, reflecting Altice’s continued investment in technology and innovation for its customers in the United States.

Riding on such business endeavors, this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) stock is likely to fulfill its corporate objective in the future. A few better-ranked stocks in the industry are Communications Systems, Inc. JCS and Harmonic Inc. HLIT, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), and Spirent Communications PLC SPMYY, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy), currently. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Communications Systems surpassed earnings estimates by 600% in the last quarter.       
 
Harmonic has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 8.8%. It beat earnings estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, the average positive surprise being 119.9%.

Spirent Communications has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 6%.

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