Awards Publicity Helps Netflix, Inc. (NFLX): Lucas Shaw

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) is benefiting nicely from the publicity that winning awards for its shows create, Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw said on Bloomberg West.

“Three. That is the number of awards that Netflix won the last night of the Screen Actors Guild award – two for Orange is the New Black and one for House of Cards. [This] is the latest example of how Netflix is growing clout and it comes on the heels of Amazon winning two awards at the Emmys,” Shaw said.

Shaw added that these recent wins show that streaming services such as Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) and Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) are now really competing with HBO, Showtime and everyone else.

The Bloomberg reporter noted that these shows are being used by Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) to increase their subscriber base. He noted that Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) just ran a promotion for Transparent on Saturday when people could watch the show for free and sign up for the Amazon Prime program at a lower cost.

“I don’t anticipate Netflix offering a ton of discounts but the awards publicity from Orange is the New Black and House of Cards definitely helps,” he said.

According to Shaw, Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) has admitted in its most recent earnings call that House of Cards alone, its original political drama, adds about 150,000 subscribers when a new season is released.

He said that this is particularly important for the company because investors and industry observers are looking for growth in terms of subscriber base for the firm. Furthermore, taking into account that subscriber growth has slowed in the U.S., showing that these original productions add subscribers is key for the content distributor.

Netflix, Inc. (NASDAQ:NFLX) shareholders includes David E. Shaw’s D.E. Shaw & Co., L.P. which owned about 1.02 million shares in the firm by the end of September. This is a 60% increase in the fund’s stake in Netflix quarter over quarter.