Awards Season Upon Us and the Penske Media Greed Spiral
Inside our hometown monopolist's Golden Globes money grab. Plus: The Emmys marked the end of the entire Streaming Era folly
Before I dive into what is happening in the monopoly of Penske these days, and its shenanigans with the Golden Globes, let’s first talk about the Emmys . . .
Well, that was fun.
By that and was, I mean this whole streaming era. Which this week’s Emmy feels like, if not a last hurrah, sort of a valedictory sign off.
It was all a nice and clubby Great Streaming Wars gathering. I don’t know how they figure these things out, but they managed to spread the big noms meticulously well among the major players of the era. For the glamour categories tied to the big three best show awards, here’s how they were divvied up by company:
Disney: 7
Netflix: 4
Apple: 4
HBO: 4
Amazon: 3
Isn’t that nice? (Sorry, Paramount and Peacock.) All the big boys given a more or less equal seat at the final table, without any upstarts like Tubi or Mubi or Chick-fil-A nosing their way in.
Next year maybe they can segue to participation trophies (for all who pay to participate.) Which would be a nice consolation for Amazon and Apple, each of which spent the GDP of a medium-sized country on productions this year, only to emerge mostly empty-handed. Certainly talent, all happy to cash their checks when production begins, should be questioning the awards strategy and spending. This hand-to-hand combat is clearly not a tech company’s game.
In politics, there is a great, rich tradition of billionaire candidates spending vast amounts of their own fortunes that dwarf the field only to be rejected by voters. Michael Bloomberg, who spent a billion of his money for a humiliating withdrawal in total defeat, is the current leader of that club. Other members: Meg Whitman, Steve Forbes, Tom Steyer and Linda McMahon.
It would be nice to establish a similar Hall of Fame in entertainment — the companies that spend the most only to come away with the least result. Netflix has won a lot of these in the past. This year’s Apple and Amazon slates, just to eyeball it, must rank up there.