Hollywood Awards Go Streaming, Will Nollywood Follow?

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards’ recent announcement that it would be streaming live within the Netflix app in 2024 is another big leap for the streaming giant which continues to disrupt television viewing. The SAG Awards will be the first live awards show for the streamer. This year, the Hollywood awards ceremony will be streamed on Netflix channel on YouTube.

SAG Awards’ partnership with Netflix is another indication that linear television may be losing its appeal to award shows, at least, this is the case in the United States.

According to reports, the SAG awards hardly got an average of two million views from last year’s ceremony. It is the first time the awards ceremony will not air on TNT and TBS in 25 years.

Of course, Netflix is not the first streaming platform to endear Hollywood awards. The Golden Globes which were held last Tuesday were streamed on Peacock, the streaming platform owned by NBCUniversal. Last year, The Academy of Country Music Awards switched from CBS to Amazon’s Prime Video.

With this new trend, will Nollywood follow?

Imagine Africa Magic Viewers’ Choice Awards (AMVCA) streamed live only on Showmax. Or maybe the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) choosing Netflix for its 2023 edition.

Streaming platforms have their perks. Netflix, for example, has more than 223 million global paid subscriptions as of the end of 2022 and averages about 4.6 million viewers on average throughout the day, according to a Nielsen measurement reported in IndieWire. This figure is a far cry from what cable networks get in a day. Thus, award shows get more audience and for a global platform like Netflix, get a wider appeal. For the streamers, advertisers go where the eyes are, and having a global event on their platform will magnetically pull advertisers.

Although Netflix is keen on expanding its live programming as indicated by Netflix’s Head of Global TV Bela Bajaria, Nollywood awards may not quickly jump on the bus. The film industry is still romanticising with streaming platforms keen on expanding their local content, as such, talks about streaming live events for Nollywood, may take a while.

So far, the AMVCAs and AMAA are the most prestigious local film award platforms celebrated on the continent. It is unlikely that MultiChoice Nigeria will sell the AMVCA rights to Netflix given that it has its streaming platform Showmax. AMAA may want to initiate such talks with Amazon Prime.  YouTube, another viable platform, is already having such partnerships with Nigerian music award shows. For instance, the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) entered into a partnership with YouTube for its eighth edition which is held today in Dakar, Senegal. The awards will be streamed live on YouTube to music fans.