Thursday's Market Minute: The Streaming Awards

The Emmy Awards, or the Streaming Awards? On Tuesday, July 13, the Television Academy announced the nominations for the 73rd Emmy Awards. Scheduled to air Sunday, September 19 on CBS and available to stream on Paramount+, the award ceremony will feature all the most prominent streaming service leaders. With many consumers shifting entirely to streaming services this past year due to COVID-19, it is no surprise to see original streaming series dominating the nominations. Three streaming service original series led the pack, with Disney’s “The Mandalorian” scoring 24 nominations and “WandaVision” earning 23, as well as Netflix’s The Crown earning 24 nominations. Disney + DIS scored 71 nominations, and Netflix NFLX came in with 129 nominations overall; however, AT&T Inc.'s (T) WarnerMedia HBO and HBO Max racked up the highest total number of nominations with 130. Additionally, Hulu, Apple TV (NASDAQ: AAPL), and Amazon AMZN originals are contenders in specific Emmy award categories, including best drama and comedy series.

While streaming service networks certainly accumulated many nominations this year, few names have ever actually won in the major Emmy Award categories. Traders should keep an eye on these platforms during this time as the Emmys may solidify their dominance and legitimize their role in the television industry for the future. These nominations will likely propel streaming platforms to continue to make original content, while also potentially creating new licensing and studio deals in the industry. We have already seen Shonda Rhimes break the traditional TV model by moving her company Shondaland fully to Netflix.

Overall, in this space, content is everything, and these awards will serve as a validator of the quality these platforms provide. Investors will have to wait and see who takes home trophies come September.