In this year alone streaming platforms such as HBO, Hulu, Netflix and Amazon Prime dominated the Golden Globe Awards in almost all major categories and swept plenty of awards. Closer to home Netflix’s ‘Sacred Games’, ‘Lust Stories’ and Nawazuddin Siddiqui starrer ‘McMafia’ were nominated in the Emmy Awards and actor Radhika Apte was nominated for Best Actress as well.
Even in the 2020 Academy Awards, streaming platforms were nominated for a whopping 24 awards in various departments out of which they won seven which was almost double from the year before wherein they won five.
This just goes to show the steady rise in the recognition of OTT platforms but what has caused this surge of nominations?
For starters, OTT players heavily invest in original scripted content which has gone as high as 17 billion dollars in 2018 alone. The huge demand by consumers for fresh and unique content is a huge driving factor in churning out so many movies in a year. This gives these players plenty of diverse options to send in various categories of the award shows. They also leave no stone unturned to advertise and pitch their movies to get as many votes as they can. For example, this year Netflix spent millions on prime-time billboards to stay relevant during the award season.
These award show nominations and wins are a means to an end for OTT platforms in the fierce battle of subscribers and revenue. If a movie on say Netflix or a TV show on Amazon Prime gets nominated or even wins award(s) that creates a lot of positive buzz and excitement around it which can motivate first time subscribers to pay for the streaming service and watch the movie or TV show that everyone is talking about and in turn becoming a part of the platform’s revenue base. This whole ordeal essentially boils down to a strategy of spending money to make more money.
The COVID-19 restrictions has also put these streaming services in a unique position because the production of various movies has stopped and the release of many others has also been put on hold. With no cinema halls, a lot of production houses are taking their films directly to OTT platforms for a wider audience and to recoup losses in the process. Indian movies such as ‘Gunjan Saxena’, ‘Gulabo Sitabo’ and ‘Shakuntala Devi’ are just some that will be seen on our laptop screens instead of movie theaters this year.
This direct-to-OTT move will definitely make the OTT category a hard one to ignore in the next award season. Even though traditional cinemas are re-inventing themselves to be places that can offer you a whole experience of movie watching and attract a wider audience, streaming websites are not behind in the race as they make up for the lack of cinema screens with the quality of innovative content that they put up.
This has ultimately proved that the only way forward is to make room for OTT content in award shows because not only are they here to stay but also to win.