Fox, Amazon And Comcast Big Winners At Golden Globes

The Golden Globes are known industry-wide for being unique.

On the TV side, voters usually like to reward new up and coming talent while their Emmy counterparts are deeply rooted in tradition. As a result you have to take the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s (HFPA) picks with a grain of salt.

Conversely on the film side, despite some questionable designations, the winners almost always get a head start on the road to the Oscars.

Looking at this year’s winners, that’s a fair description of how people are reacting to this year’s awards.

Television

When HFPA announced its Golden Globe nominations in December, it caught the attention of the industry, largely because of its selections from the world of television. Of the 11 series nominated for either Best Comedy or Drama, almost half were from a streaming service.

While that’s not a surprise to investors in Netflix, Inc. NFLX or Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN who understand the cord-cutting revolution is upon us, it was a pleasant shock to see Hulu enter the mix. To say the nomination was the prize for Hulu this year would be as accurate as it would be to say executives at Netflix are beginning to sense Amazon is gaining on them.

Amazon took the prize for Best Comedy and Best Actor in a Comedy, just as it did last year for “Transparent,” which went on to make its presence felt at the Emmys as well. It is important to note though this year’s winner “Mozart In The Jungle” and “Transparent” are two entirely different shows and it will be interesting to see if that success can be duplicated.

Among the traditional networks, Comcast’s USA Network proved there is still some life on cable as its breakout series “Mr.Robot” took Best Drama and Best Supporting Actor in A Drama (Christian Slater). The only thing standing in the way of a complete sweep was voters paying tribute one last time to Jon Hamm, who won for the swan song season of “Mad Men.”

Movies

On the film side nobody had a bigger night than 21st Century Fox FOXA. The studio took home wins in both top film categories setting up a race for Best Picture at the Oscars.

Between victories for "The Revenant" (Drama) and "The Martian" (Comedy) as well as Leonardo DiCaprio (Actor- Drama), Jennifer Lawrence (Actress – Comedy) and Alejandro G. Inarritu (Director – Drama), it is going to be a good day on the Fox lot Monday morning.

Despite everyone (including ‘Martian’s’ director Ridley Scott) questioning how the story of an abandoned and presumed-dead astronaut is a comedy, the message remained the same in that these two films are the ones being talked about the most in Hollywood.

Comcast Corporation CMCSA’s lead film division Universal also pulled in two key wins as the critically acclaimed (but box office deprived) "Steve Jobs" won for its Aaron Sorkin drafted screenplay and the work of supporting actress Kate Winslet.

While the film’s inability to make money derailed its initial Oscar chances, investors and analysts never fully gave up on a potential late surge. Both Sorkin and Winset, along with lead actor Michael Fassbender, are expected to be among the nominees when the Oscars announce its nominations on Thursday.