Streaming Companies Dominate Emmy Award Nominations: How Apple, Netflix And HBO Max Are Shaking Up TV

When the 2022 Primetime Emmy Award Nominations were announced Tuesday, a commonality was the dominance of streaming platforms in many categories. Over the years, the number of nominations by streaming companies has been strong and could show that the future of television belongs to streaming.

What Happened: Streaming platforms Netflix Inc NFLX, Apple TV+ from Apple Inc AAPL, Warner Bros. Discovery WBD unit HBO/HBO Max and Walt Disney Co DIS majority-owned Hulu had a combined 280 nominations.

AppleTV+ had a record-breaking 52 Emmy Award nominations led by its hit show “Ted Lasso” with 20 nominations and was the most nominated comedy. Freshman show “Severance” scored 14 nominations.

HBO Max and HBO landed a combined 140 nominations, up from 130.

Netflix had 105 Emmy Award nominations, trailing only 108 from HBO on a standalone basis. The total is down from last year’s 129 nominations. Netflix was the most nominated company in 2018, breaking a 17-year run by HBO. The streaming giant has been among the top-nominated companies over the past five years.

For the first time ever, Roku Inc ROKU secured Emmy Award nominations. The company known as a hardware provider for streaming has ramped up its original content with its own The Roku Channel. The company’s “Zoey’s Extraordinary Christmas” and “Immoral Compass” received two and one nominations, respectively. The Roku Channel reached around 80 million people in the U.S.

Related Link: Netflix Heads To The Upside Down: How You Can Get Stranger Things NFTs 

Why It’s Important: Streaming companies dominated the Emmy Award list again, showing the continued shift from traditional television. This could be a win for streaming companies that are going after consumers and can advertise their hit award-nominated shows.

Along with the overall strong nomination figures, the streaming companies showed dominance in the major categories such as Best Drama, Best Comedy and the acting categories. Of the eight Best Drama nominations, six were from streaming platforms or the HBO/HBO Max combination. The Best Comedy nominations saw five of the eight nominees come from streaming-related companies.

Not often put in the same company as streaming giants Netflix, Hulu, Disney+ and HBO Max, AppleTV+ has been a recent favorite of the award show circuit. “Ted Lasso” was the most nominated comedy for the second year in a row. A total of 13 shows on AppleTV+ received at least one nomination.

One concern would be “Ted Lasso” potentially coming to an end and two AppleTV+ shows making up the majority of their nominations.

Apple won the Best Picture Oscar last year for “Coda,” a first by a streaming platform.

The HBO shows end up on HBO Max giving the streaming platform an advantage over some of its competitors. “Succession” had 25 nominations, the most of any show. “The White Lotus,” another HBO show, ranked third for nominations among shows.

Smash hit “Stranger Things” from Netflix was nominated for 13 Emmy Awards for season 4 including the Outstanding Drama category. Last year, the Netflix show had only eight nominations for season 3. Overall, the show now has 51 Emmy Award nominations and seven wins before the 2022 award show.

Other streaming companies like Paramount Global Inc PARAPARAA owned Paramount+ and Disney+ didn’t fare as well, being shut out of major categories. Paramount+ hit shows “Yellowstone” and “1883” secured only three combined nominations and have been listed on many award snub lists.

What’s Next: While nominations are nice and can be a good marketing play for media companies, winners are even better.

In 2021, Netflix won 44 Emmy Awards leading the way. The company beat out HBO/HBO Max which won 19 Emmys. In 2020, HBO beat Netflix with a 30 to 21 award win tally.

The 74th Primetime Emmy Awards will air on NBC, a unit of Comcast Corporation CMCSA, on Sept. 12.