The Briefing: Netflix Wins Oscar Nominations, Loses Wall Street

This year’s Academy Awards ceremony on April 25 will air on Disney’s ABC network, as it has for many years. But it could well be Netflix’s show, judging by the 35 award nominations received by Netflix movies Monday morning, including 10 for “Mank.” Not only does Netflix dominate the streaming side of television, it’s now devouring the glitzy awards side of the film business. (It was only two years ago Steven Spielberg was trying to stop this exact thing from happening).

But awards are a sideshow for investors, who lately appear to have deserted Netflix in favor of older entertainment companies newer to the streaming game, like ViacomCBS and Discovery. In the past three months, Netflix’s stock has been flat while ViacomCBS (owner of the Paramount+ streaming service) and Discovery (owner of Discovery+) have both rocketed more than 150%. ViacomCBS shares even passed $100 at one point on Monday, up from $35 in mid-December. Notably, Netflix said in mid-January that its business was close to being financially self-sustaining, after years of tapping the bond market to raise funds to finance its expansion.