The benchmark SAG awards ceremony is breaking tradition and officially going to stream.
Netflix
With streaming of both television and movies becoming ever more the norm, it’s no surprise that shows honoring those mediums would inevitably follow suit. According to a report from IndieWire, the landmark SAG Awards Ceremony has made a collaborative deal with Netflix. The show is set to transition from broadcast television to online streaming starting this year.
To be more specific, SAG will live stream its 2023 awards ceremony first on Netflix’s Youtube channel as a preliminary transition to the streaming giant. The 2024 awards next year will make their official debut on Netflix proper. While other awards ceremonies like the Golden Globes have been making a move, albeit more timidly, towards the streaming medium in an attempt to draw more audience appeal that has waned in recent years, this move by SAG is certainly the most boastful by far. Netflix is just now dipping into the live stream avenue of its portfolio of services, still refining the technology needed to run that platform effectively. Its first test of the service will be a Chris Rock comedy special airing on March 4th.
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SAG-AFTRA executive director Duncan-Crabtree Ireland released this statement in response to the organization’s new partnership with Netflix.
“We are thrilled to embark on this exciting new partnership with Netflix and we look forward to expanding the global audience for our show…As the only televised awards program exclusively honoring the performances of actors, whose work is admired by millions of fans, the SAG Awards are a unique and cherished part of the entertainment universe.”
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Will Streaming Be Enough for Award Shows to Remain Relevant?
ABC
With the gradual migration of awards ceremonies like SAG and the Golden Globes to online streaming platforms, it begs the question if such a move is remotely enough to bolster the viewership that such shows desperately need these days. The popularity of awards shows has all but plummeted in recent years for a myriad of reasons. From the increasingly stale formula of the shows themselves that are simply going out-of-date, to the pandemic, which also pumped the breaks on such social gatherings for two years, to one controversy or another that seems to methodically happen during select presentations, it would seem that awards shows are legitimately in the “adapt or die” phase of their life now.
Polls have been done to take the temperature among actual audiences to figure out why they’re not tuning in these days. The answers again vary, from “boredom” with tradition to wishing for celebrities to leave their politics at home to one controversy, such as the recent Golden Globes boycott against the HFPA. The infamous “Will Smith slap” moment at the normally prestigious 2022 Oscars certainly didn’t help matters either, and the public reaction to it was polarizing, to say the least. Either way, it will be interesting to see how and if organizations like SAG can withstand the mounting scrutiny from their audiences and continue to broadcast awards ceremonies or if the “pomp, fluff and artifice” of such shows will inevitably fade to black one day.
The 29th Annual SAG awards will stream live on Netflix’s Youtube channel on Sunday, February 26th, at 8 PM EST/5 PM PST.
You can view the original article HERE.
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