As its stock price flounders, the parent company of Truth Social unveiled its latest grand plan on Tuesday: a streaming service that will specialize in religious and family-friendly content, along with material that has otherwise been “suppressed.”
Should Netflix be worried? Based on Trump Media & Technology Group’s share price after the announcement, the answer is resoundingly “no.” By early afternoon on Tuesday, the stock had tanked more than 12 percent. It has now plummeted 65 percent since its peak in late March.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, the streaming platform will be launched in three phases. First, the company will deliver live TV to its app, then it will release a standalone service for phones and other devices, and then it will bring its content to home TVs. Trump Media is majority-owned by former President Donald Trump.
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“With our streaming content, we aim to provide a permanent home for high-quality news and entertainment that face discrimination by other channels and content delivery services,” said Trump Media CEO Devin Nunes, a former Republican congressman loyal to Trump. “There is a lot of great content that simply can't find an audience for unjust reasons, and we want to let these creators know they'll soon have a guaranteed platform where they won't be canceled.”
The company will need to expand its offerings if it hopes to survive long-term. Last year, it generated a paltry $4.1 million in revenue and losses of $58.2 million. The company also conceded in a recent disclosure that it doesn’t make management decisions in a particularly scientific way.
“Since its inception, TMTG has not relied on any specific key performance metric to make business or operating decisions. Consequently, it has not been maintaining internal controls and procedures for periodically collecting such information, if any,” the filing said.
Trump, who faces hundreds of millions of dollars in legal judgments, can’t yet tap his stake in the business to flood his coffers with cash. At least for now, he and other executives aren’t allowed to sell their shares for approximately five more months.
