In the run-up to the January 15th Emmy Awards show on Fox, Nielsen’s Gracenote has released a new study showing that streaming services garnered a record share of the shows nominated for the major Emmy awards recognizing outstanding Acting, Directing, Writing and Shows this year.

The Television Academy which administers the Primetime Emmy Awards decided to push back the 2023 ceremony from its usual September window to January 15, 2024 due to the Hollywood labor disputes. The awards will cover programming from June 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023.

Analysis from Nielsen’s Gracenote has found that 41 shows have been nominated in the 22 categories of major Emmy awards recognizing outstanding Acting, Directing, Writing and Shows this year. Streaming services accounted for 27 of these shows, the highest share in Emmy history from the streamers. 

Nine are from premium cable networks, two from broadcast networks, one from a basic cable network and two from Free Advertising Supported Streaming TV (FAST) channels. The nomination of Jury Duty, the first series from a FAST channel, is particularly noteworthy because its channel Freevee broadcast only six original scripted series in the nomination period, the researchers noted. 

The 2023 Primetime Emmy Awards mark the fifth year in succession in which more shows from streaming services than other distributors have received nominations in major categories. More shows than ever from streamers were nominated for major awards this year.

Other key highlights from their analysis include: 

• Streaming shows captured 27 Emmy nominations in major awards categories, a new record high. Just six years ago, only 10 shows from streaming services were nominated in these categories.
• Major nominations for streaming series have remained relatively stable for five successive Emmy award cycles at between 10 and 14 different shows. This year’s 14 nominated series from streamers for major awards equal the 2021 record.
• The recent increase in Emmy nominations in major categories for streaming shows has been driven by limited or anthology series and TV movies. The 13 nominated shows in 2023 are nearly three times as many as the five in 2019 and represent a new high for the streamers.
• Showtime’s George & Tammy and NBC’s Dolly Parton's Mountain Magic Christmas are the only limited series or TV movies from premium cable or broadcast networks nominated for major Emmys at this awards ceremony.
• Streaming services have triple the number of programs with major nominations of premium cable services for the first time this year. Nearly two-thirds of programs nominated for major Emmy awards are from streaming services, the highest proportion achieved so far by this group.
• It was only two years ago that streaming services had over 50% of the nominated programs in major categories for the first time.
• Only one series from a broadcast network - ABC’s Abbott Elementary - has been nominated for major Emmy awards this year. Broadcast networks have never had such little success with series. Just three years ago, this segment accounted for seven major Emmy awards nominations for series.
• This year premium cable services have received their lowest number of nominated programs in major Emmy award categories (9) since streaming services received their first major Emmy nominations in 2013. The previous low for premium cable programming was 10 major award nominees in 2021.
• The 41 programs nominated for major Emmy awards in 2023 is consistent with the last two years (39 in 2021 and 40 in 2022). However, this is a smaller number of nominated programs than in the peak years of the last decade as 55 different shows and TV movies were nominated in 2015 and 50 in 2018.
• Jury Duty is the first series from a FAST channel to be nominated for a major Emmy award. Its creator Freevee made only five other original series which were released during the nomination period. The Roku Channel’s Weird: The Al Yankovic Story is the second TV Movie from a FAST channel to receive Emmy recognition, after last year’s Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas, also from the same channel. 

 As part of its analysis of the nominations Gracenote researchers also provided a bit of historical background for the rise of streaming services. 

They noted that six years after its launch as a subscribed video on demand streaming service, Netflix picked up its first major Emmy nominations in 2013. "House of Cards" was nominated for Outstanding Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series, Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series and Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series. "Arrested Development" received a nomination for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. David Fincher won the directing award for the pilot episode of House of Cards, delivering Netflix’s first major Emmy.

Awards data analyzed by Gracenote reveals that, in addition to those two Netflix programs, 20 shows from premium cable companies received major Emmy award nominations in 2013, broadcast networks had nine shows acclaimed in this way, basic cable providers had seven and PBS had one for Downton Abbey, a show co-produced with UK commercial broadcaster ITV.

Two years later, Amazon became the second streaming service to produce a major Emmy-nominated show. "Transparent" joined five series and one TV movie from Netflix to receive nominations in Show, Acting, Directing or Writing categories. The seven streaming shows nominated for major awards in 2015 meant that only premium cable and broadcast networks had more acclaimed shows than the streamers. Amazon became the second streaming service to win a major Emmy as Jeffrey Tambor was given the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series award and Joey Soloway won the Outstanding Directing for a Comedy Series award.

Streaming services had 10 shows nominated for major Emmy awards in 2017 with Hulu joining Netflix and Amazon amongst the acclaimed streamers. Only premium cable services now had more nominated programs than the streamers. Hulu’s acclaimed adaptation of "The Handmaid’s Tale" became the first streaming series to win the Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series. The San Junipero episode of Netflix’s "Black Mirror" series won the Outstanding Television Movie Emmy. Other major Emmy awards went to streaming services for "The Handmaid’s Tale", "The Crown" (Netflix) and "Master of None" (Netflix), the study reported. 

Two years later, in 2019, streaming services became the segment of the TV market with the most programs nominated for major Emmy awards. Netflix produced nine of these acclaimed shows, Amazon (now rebranded as Prime Video) made four and Hulu three. Premium cable services made 15 shows acclaimed in this way with 10 from HBO, two from Showtime, two from FX and one from Pop TV. Streamers led the way in the series categories but premium cable was still on top for limited series and TV movies.

Seven different programs from streamers won major Emmy awards in 2019, one more major Emmy award winning show than the premium cable companies’ six. 

In 2020, streaming services had the most major Emmy-nominated shows in both the series and limited series/TV movie categories for the first time. Twelve streaming series and eight limited series/TV movies received major Emmy nominations that year. Apple TV+ and Disney+ became the fourth and fifth streamers to produce nominated programs in a major Emmy award category with "The Morning Show" and "The Mandalorian" respectively. A year later, Peacock and Max became the sixth and seventh streaming services to achieve this and in 2022, BET+ and Paramount+ increased that number to nine.

Since 2020, streaming services have continued to lead premium cable in Emmy-acclaimed programming. This year’s nominated shows in major categories have been dominated more than ever by the streamers which have produced a record 27 nominated shows this year, a new streaming high of 66% of nominated programs. Broadcast networks are down to two nominated shows and basic cable nets have just one, compared to 10 and six respectively just five years ago. ABC’s "Abbott Elementary" is the only series from a broadcast network to be nominated for major Emmys, a new low for the segment of the market which previously dominated the Emmys. 

Fewer segments of the TV industry producing shows with major award potential signals a shift. In 2015 and 2018, commercial broadcasters and basic cable networks still had plenty of shows receiving major nominations and this led to 55 and 50 shows respectively receiving Emmy acclaim in the most important categories. In four of the five years since 2018, only 39 to 41 different shows have received this recognition as the influence of those segments of the market have declined.

This year, there is a new entry in the major Emmy nominations for Series as Amazon Freevee’s "Jury Duty" has become the first series from a FAST channel to receive major Emmy acclaim with nominations for Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series and Outstanding Writing for a Comedy Series. 

Early on in the Emmys telecast, host Jimmy Kimmel noted how every mention of Pop TV comedy "Schitt’s Creek" would involve the show’s title appearing on screen in an effort to appease the profanity police. 

"Schitt’s Creek" would appear on screen quite a few times. So would Eugene Levy and Daniel Levy and Catherine O’Hara as they claimed various Emmy awards. 

"Schitt’s Creek" grabbed the first seven Emmy trophies: lead actress in a comedy, lead actor in a comedy, writing for a comedy, directing for a comedy, supporting actor in a comedy, supporting actress in a comedy and, finally, outstanding comedy. 

Eugene Levy credited son Daniel, “who took our fish-out-of-water story and transformed it into a celebration of inclusivity, a castigation of homophobia and a declaration of the power of love.”

No other show was honored in the Emmys’ first hour. 

The 2020 Emmys was unlike the 71 Emmys before it, Jimmy Kimmel hosting in an empty room, for the most part, and no one having audible laughs after their quips. But the telecast moved relatively quickly, remote laughs hit home and the big-winner shows all felt timely. The serious challenge of having over a hundred cameras at nominees' remote locations worked as well as one might have hoped for. 

On the drama side, HBO’s superhero drama "Watchmen" had a terrific night, racking up outstanding limited series, along with outstanding writing for a limited series, outstanding lead actress in a limited series and supporting actor in a limited series.

But HBO drama "Succession," about the battles within a family of media moguls, burned even brighter, its honors including lead actor in a drama, outstanding writing, outstanding directing and, ultimately, outstanding drama. 

Creator Jesse Armstrong called it “such a very nice moment” for all involved, and lamented the group not being together to share it. Armstrong gave out a series of “un-thank you’s” to COVID, President Trump, Boris Johnson, nationalist governments that get in the way of combating the virus and “the media moguls who keep them in power,” said Armstrong—not unlike the moguls portrayed on the series. 

Netflix came in with 160 nominations, while HBO had 107. Netflix got wins with "Unorthodox" and "Ozark," and gets an assist as the streaming platform for "Schitt’s Creek." 

HBO has felt the pressure from Netflix at awards time in recent years, but had the upper hand in 2020. HBO picked up 11 Emmys Sunday. Besides the big nights for "Succession" and "Watchmen," "Last Week Tonight with John Oliver," "I Know This Much is True" and "Euphoria" also brought home trophies. 

Pop TV won seven for "Schitt's Creek" and Netflix won two. VH1, FX and Apple TV+ all got one. 

When "Watchmen" was named outstanding limited series, creator Damon Lindelof thanked HBO, and Warner Bros., “for their unblinking support” of a daring show.

NEW YORK—The winners of the 41st Sports Emmy Awards were announced on Aug. 11 by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences through a virtual ceremony. The big winners of the night proved to be ESPN and Fox.

With awards presented in more than 35 categories, ESPN and Fox tied for the most awards by network with seven apiece—ABC also won an Emmy, so the entire ESPN network group came out ahead of all other network groups with eight.

Super Bowl LIV, which aired on Fox this year, was the most awarded program of the year with four (Outstanding Open/Tease, Outstanding Editing - Short Form, Outstanding Post-Produced Audio/Sound and Outstanding Studio or Production Design/Art Direction).

The Masters on CBS (the 2019 tournament) was directly behind the Super Bowl with three Emmys for Outstanding Live Sports Special, Outstanding Technical Team Remote and the George Wensel Technical Achievement Award for its “Every Shot, Every Hole” feature.

Other events that were recognized for their production and technical efforts included the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup Final and  HBO’s “24/7: Kelly Slater.”

The ceremony was live streamed, with winners accepting their Emmys virtually from a studio or their home. For the full list of winners, visit theemmys.tv. 

LOS ANGELES—TV’s biggest night, the Emmys, will be held virtually this year. 

Following the announcement of nominations on July 28, executive producers for the awards ceremony, and host Jimmy Kimmel, sent a letter to nominees that detail the reconfigured plan, which was first reported on by Variety.

“We are assembling a top notch team of technicians, producers and writers to work closely with Jimmy Kimmel and with you and your team, to make sure that we can film with you (and loved ones or whomever else you choose to be with) at your home, or another location,” the letter reads.

The producers say that they plan to use new camera and lighting technology to create high-quality “on-screen” moments.

Some details, like what will be live or pre-recorded, are being determined and will be shared at a later date.

The 2020 Emmys are scheduled to take place on Sept. 20. Read the full story on Variety. 

LOS ANGELES—There will be no red carpet for the 2020 Creative Arts Emmys, as the Television Academy has announced that the annual awards ceremony will be hosted as a virtual event over several nights in September because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The Creative Arts Emmys recognize the artists and craftspeople in television across all genres. The specific format that the virtual ceremony will have is currently in development.

The annual Governors Ball events, meanwhile, have been cancelled altogether. 

Though it is unclear in what capacity, both Television Academy Chairman and CEO Frank Scherma and ABC Television Network plan for the 72nd Emmy Awards to be telecast on Sept. 20 as originally planned for a “show that honors television’s unparalleled role throughout 2020 in bringing people together during a worldwide pandemic as well as acknowledge and support the unprecedented national and global demand for social justice and equality,” the announcement said.

Previously, the Television Academy had postponed its Tech & Engineering Emmys from the 2020 NAB Show in Las Vegas to the 2020 NAB Show New York. However, now that physical NAB Show New York has been cancelled, there was no update on what the plan is for the Tech & Engineering Emmys.

In addition to news about the its award ceremonies, the Television Academy has also announced it has made a $1 million donation to The Actors’ Fund COVID-19 Relief Fund, which supports those in the entertainment industry who have been impacted by the virus with financial assistance.

“As the industry reemerges, we will continue to support our more than 24,000 members and our community through this donation and our Academy’s programs and resources,” said Scherma.

NOHO ARTS DISTRICT, Calif.—The Emmys are not immune to coronavirus, as the Television Academy has announced a number of changes to the 72nd Emmy Awards season’s calendar as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Following discussions with key industry partners, the Television Academy Board of Governors voted to update the Emmy Awards calendar to better accommodate ongoing changes and disruptions in production and programming schedules across all network, cable and streaming services,” the announcement read.

A number of TV shows had to suspend production in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The changes included a number of key date shifts:

•  June 5 - Entry Deadline 
•  July 2 - Nominations-round voting begins 
•  July 13 - Nominations-round voting ends 
•  July 28 - Nominations announced 
•  Aug. 21 - Final-round voting begins 
•  Aug. 31 - Final-round voting ends 

In addition to date changes, some rules have also been modified as far as extending the dates that make a show eligible , and all Television Academy For Your Consideration events—with a live audience, streaming or recorded—have been suspended for this Emmy season.

As of now, the TV Academy has no plans to cancel or delay the Emmy telecast on Sept. 20 or the Creative Arts Emmys on Sept. 12 and 13. The Academy will continue to monitor state and national mandates, as well as recommendations from the CDC and L.A. County Department of Public Health.

The full updated Emmy calendar is available online. 

NEW YORK—The 71st Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards dinner is shifting its event originally planned to take place during the 2020 NAB Show in Las Vegas to the NAB Show New York event in the fall because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced.

The annual ceremony was scheduled to take place on April 19 in Las Vegas, helping to kickoff the NAB Show.

“In consultation with health officials, award recipients and other prospective attendees, we determined that it was no longer prudent nor viable to move forward with our ceremony,” said NATAS President & CEO Adam Sharp in a statement. “The NAB Show has been a wonderful home for the Tech Emmys, and we intend to reschedule the ceremony to correspond instead with NAB’s fall convention in New York.”

NATAS did say that it does plan to move forward with other upcoming events, including the Sports Emmy Awards on April 28 in New York; the Daytime Emmy Awards on June 12-14 in Pasadena, Calif., and the News & Documentary Emmy Awards in September in New York.

“We are closely monitoring public health authorities’ guidance, seeking feedback from our awards communities and evaluating the flexibility of our venue and production partners as we make determinations around these other events based on day-to-day developments,” Sharp added.

“In every case, the health and safety of our event attendees and staff will remain our paramount concern. We are particularly grateful to and proud of the thousands of NATAS members across America’s local newsrooms who are going the front-line work of informing the public in this time of anxiety, confusion and ever-changing information.”

Here is the list of Tech & Engineering Emmy winners that will be honored this year.

TVT is keeping track of all the latest news involving the coronavirus’ impact on the 2020 NAB Show. 

NEW YORK—Now in its 64th year, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences is embracing the digital realities of its industry and has created a new logo and branding reflecting that.

“The Emmy Awards are stronger than ever, with new distribution platforms driving record-breaking entry levels in each of our competitions,” said Adam Sharp, NATAS president and CEO. “The new NATAS branding captures the long history of the iconic Emmy Award, now right at home in the digital age.”

The new identity package will be implemented across each of NATAS’ competitions, programs and properties, as well as the academy’s 19 regional chapters. It includes variations to accommodate a myriad of platforms, screen sizes and products.

NATAS also announced that it is working with Switzerland-based Frontify as its brand management platform, which will provide a cloud-based platform for maintaining up-to-date style guides, shared media libraries and in-depth collaboration for stakeholders across brand, design, marketing and front-end developers.

LOS ANGELES—Following a 31-year career with Sony, Hugo Gaggioni, who currently serves as the company’s chief technology, is being recognized by the Television Academy with the Charles F. Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award at the 71st Engineering Emmy Awards.

The Jenkins Lifetime Achievement Award honors a living individual whose ongoing contributions have significantly affected the state of television technology and engineering. In its announcement, the Emmys describe Gaggioni as an individual who “has achieved many scientific and technical accomplishments and is widely known for his unique ability to present and explain complex technical concepts to professionals and civilians alike.” Gaggioni has spent his career researching digital video image processing, information theory, audio/video bandwidth compression, HDTV devices and systems, digital filter banks and multidimensional signal processing.

Another special award to be presented is the Philo T. Farnsworth Corporate Achievement Award, which this year will go to the American Society of Cinematographers. The Emmys praised the ASC as a society that has provided informed counsel on technological standards and advances for its entire existence.

Six additional Emmy Awards will be awarded during the ceremony:

• Boris FX Saphire is being recognized for its development of a suite of visual effects plug-ins that are used in documentaries, news, reality and scripted television and features.
• iZotope RX 7 is an audio repair company that created innovations in machine learning and advancements in noise reductions.
• FabFilter Pro-Q3 is a device that can be used on a professional mixing stage and processes the broad range of frequencies in the home stereo tuner’s treble and bass controls into 24 frequency bands of dynamic EQ.
• Silhouette is used to streamline tasks of rotoscoping, keying and matting with a portfolio of rotoscoping tools.
• Boris FX Mocha Pro helps manipulate existing pictorial content; insert new backgrounds and foregrounds; build set extensions; overly digital makeup; protect witness identities in news segments; blur and remove logos; stabilize and improve shaky handheld footage; and more.
• And JPEG will be recognized as it has universally been adopted to preserve high-quality imagery in television production and essential workflows.

The 71st Engineering Emmy Awards will be handed out at a ceremony on Oct. 23 at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in Los Angeles. Kirsten Vangsness of Criminal Minds will host.

LOS ANGELES—The Emmys are re-upping with AEG and the L.A. Live campus in downtown Los Angeles, as AEG and the Television Academy have announced a multi-year extension. The deal will see the Emmys, as well as the Creative Arts Emmy Awards, continue to be held at the Microsoft Theater.

In addition to the Microsoft Theater, the TV Academy also will continue to use the L.A. Live space for complementary activities like the Governor’s Ball, the Media Center and affiliated receptions at the Staples Center, the Los Angeles Convention Center, the Event Deck at L.A. Live, the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott Hotels, restaurants and hospitality sites. This year, the Governor’s Ball will take place at the L.A. Live Event Deck and the Media Center will be held at the JW Marriott hotel.

“We are thrilled to extend our agreement to make the L.A. Live campus and Microsoft Theater home of the Emmy Awards,” said Murray McIntyre, president of the TV Academy. “Having the ability to host so many of our members for multiple events at one site is what makes L.A. Live the perfect location to celebrate our industry.”

The 2019 Emmy Awards are scheduled for Sunday, Sept. 22, and will air on Fox starting at 8 p.m. ET.

NEW YORK—The original YouTube stars, founders Chad Hurley and Shin Chen, are being recognized for their creation by the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with the Emmy Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Hurley, 42, and Chen, 40, first met when they were employees at PayPal. They would create the video-sharing website YouTube in February 2005, which would go on to be ranked as the 10th most popular website a year after its launch. Google purchased YouTube in November 2006, making it one of its subsidiaries.

Today, 1.3 billion people use YouTube; 300 hours of video are uploaded every minute; and almost five billion videos are watched on YouTube every day.

“YouTube is one of this generation’s masterpieces of scale and simplicity,” said NATAS Technology & Engineering Committee Chairman Emeritus Charles Jablonski in the announcement. “It succeeded because of the extraordinary work it took to make the site easy to use, fast and capable of never-thought-of amounts of video. Television now has the ability to create, store and distribute material without the need of an intermediate party to gate-keep material to consumers.”

“The success of YouTube and the way it has revolutionized the way the average consumer can view, create and engage with an audience of millions is extraordinary,” added Adam Sharp, president & CEO of NATAS. “Hurley and Chen are a testament to the story of the American technology entrepreneur who imagine something and through hard work and perseverance makes that dream a reality, not only creating a new method of media distribution for a wide audience, but enabling the true democratization of television.”

Hurley and Chen will receive their awards during the 70th Annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards, which will take place at the Wynn Encore Resort & Spa in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7, in cooperation with the 2019 NAB Show.

LOS ANGELES—The Television Academy last week said it would eliminate DVD screeners as part of its nominating and voting process for the 2020 Emmy Awards.

Rather than using DVDs, the Television Academy will make screenings of eligible programs available exclusively on digital platforms hosted by the production and distribution entities or on its on viewing platform. Doing so will save the TV industry tens of millions of dollars and eliminate waste, it said.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for the Academy to take an important first step to move the industry forward in an area of great concern for both our partners and members, reducing costs and delivering a tremendous positive impact for the environment,” said Frank Scherma, chairman of the Television Academy.

“Television has an ever-expanding role as the world’s most innovative and popular entertainment medium, and this decision embraces the evolution of viewing practices and preferences of the Academy’s 25,000 members and the industry at large.”

The policy goes into effect after the 71st Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 22, 2019.

More information is available on the Television Academy website.

Bob Dylan made the phrase famous, but the Emmys in 2017 were a testament to the evolving palate of a new generation of viewers tapping streamed content and not tuning into traditional broadcast TV. The transition in programming to streaming content providers is rocking the TV world. 

The four major networks were conspicuously snubbed by the awards this year: CBS with zero awards—ditto for Fox and ABC. NBC was the sole survivor from the Big Four, and won six (four of which went to “Saturday Night Live”, which by the way you can get streamed on multiple channels). HBO was the Emmy-winning leader with 10 awards, Hulu had five, Netflix had four, and FX had two. The night’s big headline-making winner was Hulu, which won an Emmy for the coveted Best Drama.

As a result, the Emmys appeared to amount to a prime-time promotional platform for subscriber-based content services.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

In total, streaming companies walked away with 32 Emmys this year. The frightening aspect here for television networks and traditional advertisers is the demographic and physiographic of Millennials, Gen Y and Gen Z viewers who are shifting to OTT and steamed content. The Emmys, to some degree, validate the shift and speaks to the broad viewing audience migration simply based on the quality of programming. And others can say this shift is a result of the poor quality of advertising. Marc Pritchard, chief brand officer at Procter & Gamble, recently said, “Bottom line, it is time for marketers and tech companies to solve the problem of annoying ads and make the ad experience better for consumers.”

Regardless, the trend started with viewers moving away from consuming broadcast TV at pre-scheduled times, in favor of on-demand viewing on digital platforms; so time-shifting isn't new, but it is now being refined and with a bonus of high-quality content. Programs that would have been dismissed because of limited audience appeal in some cases are now market leading content and “cord-cutting” technical alternatives—now easily available—compound the dynamic, and together these all result in an industry-wide tectonic shift.

What is going to happen to the $70 billion television advertising market, which is now sprouting cracks and threatening a breech, potentially washing away significant parts of a business model 70 years in the making? The shift could be disastrous for a multiplicity of jobs, and an industry built upon the brand supported media buy.

EMMY NOMINATIONS A PROGNOSTICATOR?

Netflix, today an entertainment powerhouse, is close on the heels of HBO in delivering high-quality and consumer-validated content. The company nabbed a record 93 nominations for its original streaming content this year, nearly double the number of nods earned in 2016, and just 17 shy of HBO’s eye-popping 110. Noteworthy is that HBO is actually a subscription based, non-ad supported, streaming channel also distributed as part of a number of cable company packages.

In 2016, Netflix was third in overall nominations behind FX—a company which earned recognition largely on the strength of “Fargo” this year. Netflix hung out at the bottom of the nominee list in 2015, behind Fox, FX, NBC, CBS, and ABC, and has now blown by the competition as it pivots from a disk distributor.

Television network executives must also be concerned about more than the ad revenue eroding, as their brands are becoming diluted. Speaking when Emmy nominations were announced, Warren Littlefield, executive producer of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” said its recognition was “an acknowledgment of where streaming content is in the world.”

“We no longer say ‘networks,’ we talk about ‘platforms,’” he told Vanity Fair magazine. “Hulu gets to stand tall with not only offering classic television, but they’ve stood up to say: ‘We’re power players in original content.’” The ad buyers are most definitely having to rethink their decision paradigm and as they control the confidences of the brands.

ADVERTISING SHIFT GETTING CLEARER 

Viewers have shifted to streaming services with a corresponding impact on television advertising. Media research firm eMarketer has cut its estimate for ad spending in the U.S., and is forecasting growth in 2017 of just 0.5 percent to $71.65 billion, $1 billion less than the forecast in January 2017. The firm estimates TV’s share of total media ad spending in the U.S. to plummet to 34.9 percent in 2017 from 36.6 percent in 2016, and is forecast to slip below 30 percent by 2021.

Netflix, climbing the Emmy ladder and strategically playing the odds, is betting big against the big four networks, and its OTT streaming competition. The company has been practically doubling nomination count every year, while producing a mind-boggling 600 hours of original content and spending $6 billion a year to try and dominate revenue supporting the media wars.

More and more players are entering the market, as technology makes it easy to spin up a channel and the financial community has opened their wallets to take advantage of new streaming programming and the consumer demand. Earlier this year, Apple tapped two well-regarded television studio heads to lead its programming efforts. Apple has more than $1 billion budgeted for original programming content; Facebook wants its own version of “Scandal;” and Google is ready to spend up to $3 million per episode on a drama. The nouveau riche channel arrivals will make an already hypercompetitive industry even more ferocious. This year, there are expected to be more than 500 scripted TV shows, more than double the number six years ago.

TALENT FOLLOWS AWARDS

SVOD (streaming video on demand) talent has been shifting from traditional TV to streaming and exiting at an alarming rate. High-profile examples include Netflix poaching an ultra-successful producer from ABC, and Amazon luring away the creator of the blockbuster “The Walking Dead” series on AMC.

Netflix and Amazon—which have had longer records in original programming—with their wins on television’s biggest night, will enhance their standing in Hollywood’s creative community, where top talent tends to gravitate towards the channels and platforms that can offer the most potential for awards recognition.

ENTRY LEVEL COSTS NOT A FACTOR 

There are some trends that could rescue the TV bundle, as the outsized pay-TV channel packages become increasingly endangered. Re-aggregation of content and the birth of virtual MVPDs is a trend spawned partially after “TV Everywhere” sacrificed the consumer experience and scattered content across hundreds of platforms and apps. Disaggregation caused by “TV Everywhere” apps had the unintended consequence of waking an anaesthetized consumer. Virtual MVPDs are now serving as the recreation of the cable bundle and at the same time creating a more accessible user experience for streaming media viewers. Welcome to the new world. 

Rich Greenfield, analyst with BTIG Research, said Hulu’s Emmys success signaled an increasing pressure on the traditional “bundle” of channels sold by cable and satellite providers. “It illustrates how great content has never been cheaper and easier to access,” he said, pointing to new standalone streaming services such as HBO Now and the bundling of streaming services with telco packages. “You do not need the bundle to watch ‘The Handmaid’s Tale,’ ‘Big Little Lies,’ ‘The Crown,’ ‘Veep’ [or] ‘The Night Of.’ Hulu is only $7.99 a month, HBO is now a free giveaway via AT&T and Netflix is free via T-Mobile.”

IMBALANCE VERTIGO 

The amount of money the major television networks spend on programming versus the streaming services providers is ridiculously disproportionate. The networks spend much larger sums in comparison, but are now collecting less and less of the recognition, i.e. Emmys. The streaming content creators are spending in comparison considerably less, yet racking up more and more of the awards.

The major television networks are not currently able to create addressable advertising through their traditional distribution. Technology advances are coming, but the adoption by these behemoth corporations and their vested engineering infrastructure slow the pace. The streaming service content creators and distributors will most certainly leverage addressable advertising, and in turn, ultimately demand higher CPMs for their viewers. The double dip is, they will do this while spending much less money on their programming too.

CALL TO ACTION 

Major television networks will get their OTT counterpart offerings out there as quickly as possible, and with the brute force only they can deliver. The 2017 Emmy results merely clarified the other growing trends to motivate the level of change undoubtedly on the horizon. The big four will ultimately not be stripped of their dominance in ad spending dollars by the OTT and streaming upstarts.

Creating proprietary OTT and streaming content offerings create opportunities for television networks to re-assert their brands, and as the migration of television network’s profits move to their OTT services via addressable advertising.

NextGen TV (aka ATSC 3.0) will play a role for the TV networks to distribute IP streaming broadcast television and assert pristine quality broadcasts to second screens. By maintaining their high standards in the OTT streaming distribution world the television networks will assert their brand dominance and in doing so, will stand apart from the current numerous streaming offerings. Consumers still place far higher trust in the traditional TV broadcasters for quality programming and the time is now as this opportunity won’t last forever as viewers continue to immerse themselves in streaming programming choices from multiple sources.

Lastly a priority will certainly be preserving programming’s digital rights and to make the most out of addressable advertising. The competition is gaining on the big four, however, there are tools available to open the OTT streaming levies and put the pressure back on the usurpers dipping into the waters behind the $70 billion dam built by these industry leading titans. The trick will be to migrate a portion of the network’s current market share to streaming distribution without losing control, and pushing the ad revenue CPM, because only they can.

Mark M. Myslinski of OpenVideo Consulting is a 15-year veteran of the digital cable television industry combined with over 7 years recent experience in the streaming media industry. Mr. Myslinski can be reached atmmmyslinski@gmail.com.

CULVER CITY, CALIF.—The march toward a multiplatform digital future is well on its way, but what form it will eventually take is still up for debate. VFX Technologies, a provider of computer rentals and tech services, got a peek at one possibilitywhen it was hired by AMV Digital Media, an online broadcast, managed and production services company, to provide a custom solution to capture broadcast feeds at the Emmys.

Sarote Tabcum

The digital side of its Emmy production consisted of providing connectivity help between the production trucks and teams from IMDb, Amazon and the TV Academy to transcode and use fresh media as web content on their sites and social media profiles. With the VFX systems, editors were able to cut together footage from real-time cues and events to keep up with the live broadcast. “Our system tied everything together and provided a high-speed, 10GB fiber backbone between the two locations and to the editing,” said Sarote Tabcum, founder of VFX Technologies.

According to Tabcum, this was VFX’s first project where it provided editing support for a live production. The company has worked with other companies with a more digital focus in recent years, and Tabcum believes that these types of productions are only going to become more frequent.

“I see digital media is taking off at a very fast speed and the demand is there,” he explained. The ability for multiple broadcasters to share the same content instantly among their own social media accounts is a big shift from the past traditions of a single broadcaster having primary access to content. This new accessibility also allows broadcasters to quickly edit and make the content their own.

For VFX, and other companies like it, this means that they will have to quickly adjust to this new capability and others that could emerge down the road. “We’re at the forefront of any new technology and it’s our job to know how best to utilize that for our clients,” said Tabcum. This includes the shift to IP that is underway and will change the infrastructure of how baseband, video and broadcast delivers video signals.

Tabcum found the experience at the Emmy broadcast to be a positive one for his company, because it set them up to be an ally to companies looking to do similar digital experiments in the future. “We want to be a very solid stepping stone for many of these clients that are testing the waters and as these projects come live I hope they will rely on our expertise so they don’t have to be a Guinea pig,” he said. 

NEW YORK—The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences has announced the recipients of the 67th annual Technology & Engineering Emmy Awards. Among the winners is Alexander Bain, a Scottish inventor and engineer who passed away in 1877. Bain is being recognized for the concept of scanning for image transmission in 1842-1843. Good things come to those who wait.

Here is the full list of recipients:

• Pioneering Optimization of Advertising Placement in Single Channel Linear Television Programs: 
  BCS (Imagine Communications)
• Standardization and Pioneering Development of Non-Live Broadband Captioning:
  Netflix
  HBO
  Telestream
  SMPTE
  W3C
• Open Modular Platform for Broadcast and Production Distribution and Conversion Equipment:
  Ross Video
• Development and Standardization of HDBaseT Connectivity Technology for Commercial and Residential HDMI/DVI Installations:
  Valens Semiconductor
• Phonetic Indexing and Timing:
  Nexidia Inc.
• Steganographic Technologies for Audio/Video:
  Nielsen
  Civolution
  Digimarc
  Verance
• Pre-Production Visualization System:
  Autodesk
  Cast-Soft
  Innoventive Software
  Robert Abel
• The Concept of Scanning for Image Transmission:
  Alexander Bain
• Pioneering Development of Data Drive Traffic Systems for Multichannel Environments:
  MSA
  Turner
• Development of Enabling Technology for High Density Video Switching and Routing Solutions:
  MACOM
• Closed-Loop Statistical Multiplexing of Geographically Distributed Encoders:
  DirecTV
  Echostar
  Ericsson
  Harmonic

The awards will be handed out on Jan. 8, 2016 at the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, in conjunction with the International Consumer Electronics Show.