 Next week's Academy of Country Music Awards promises to be a barn-burner on several fronts, including its setting (the massive Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas), performer list (Carrie Underwood and Kelly Clarkson), and host (the living legend that is Dolly Parton). But the biggest reason to pay attention to this year's show: It will stream live on Amazon's Prime Video, making it the first big awards show to fully ditch broadcast TV for a digital on-demand platform. This week's Buffering takes a look at why the ACMs made the leap and how the show will be different on streaming. I've also got some thoughts on how ABC might mollify film fans who are understandably upset about changes to this year's Academy Awards. | | Meanwhile, some late-breaking news from CNN: We finally know the pricing scheme for the news giant's upcoming streaming service, CNN+. The WarnerMedia-owned company said the ad-free platform will cost a rather hefty $5.99 per month, a buck more than Apple TV+ and Peacock. There's no specific launch date yet, but Los Angeles Times media guru Steve Battaglio is reporting the streamer will go live the last week of this month. To help boost sign-ups out of the gate, CNN+ will be also be offered at half-price ($2.99) during its first month, with that rate guaranteed for as long as someone remains a subscriber; an annual plan will be priced at $59.99, which comes out to $5 per month. It remains to be seen whether there's a market for a subscription-based streaming news service, but if CNN+ promises to put up hundreds of old episodes of Larry King Live, Crossfire, and Showbiz Today, they'll get my money. –Joe Adalian | | Stay updated on all the news from the streaming wars. Subscribe now for unlimited access to Vulture and everything New York. |  | ![]() | | Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo by Getty Images | | | | Ratings for the Oscars, Emmys, and other big awards shows have plunged over the past five years, prompting all sorts of speculation about the future of kudocasts. Some industry insiders have even speculated whether these celebratory ceremonies would be better off cutting the cord and shifting to streaming, where there'd be less pressure to generate big audiences — or to make the sorts of changes currently causing so much unrest among Academy Awards superfans. We're about to find out what such a digital future might look like: Next Monday's 57th annual Academy of Country Music Awards will be seen on Amazon's Prime Video, making it the first major awards show to be housed exclusively on a digital platform. It almost certainly won't be the last. | | In many ways, the ACMs are an unlikely streaming pioneer. The country music-themed show was based at CBS from 1998 until last April, having previously done extended stints on both NBC and ABC. While never as big a draw as a Grammys or the American Music Awards, the event remained a powerful Nielsen performer as late as 2019, when it still was able to pull 10 million same-day viewers and nearly double its closest timeslot rivals among adults aged 25 to 54. But the pandemic and the continuing expansion of streaming competition took a toll. Last year's telecast fell to just 6 million viewers and turned in an even weaker demo performance. So when its deal for the show was up last summer, Paramount-owned CBS decided it no longer could justify paying in the neighborhood of $20 million to ACM show producer MRC Live & Alternative, and instead decided to partner with sibling cable network CMT to turn its long-running CMT Awards franchise into an Eye event. MRC, now looking for a new home for the ACM, held some early conversations with NBC, its partners on the Golden Globes. But those went nowhere, almost surely because of the network's concern over that $20 million price tag. | | And that's where Amazon's Prime Video came in. It agreed to pick up the ACMs for a year, and while neither MRC nor the tech giant is talking financials, it's not a stretch to say that the $20 million CBS and NBC balked at doesn't qualify as an extraordinary investment for a streamer. What's more, a big live event like the ACMs fits with the current gameplan for Prime Video. The Amazon streamer has been active in both the live TV and music spaces, paying big bucks for rights to NFL Thursday Night Football and investing millions in events such as its Prime Day concert series. So an awards show with a half-century brand and a decent-sized audience — even at last year's reduced levels — feels like a logical next step. It also offered Prime the opportunity to do some real-time market research: Will viewers still invested in watching awards shows follow them to a streaming service? And perhaps even more importantly, can the Amazon ecosystem drive new audiences to the ACMs? | | Monday's event will offer the first big chance to test the theory that awards shows can do well on streaming, and because of the stakes involved, MRC and Amazon are going all-out to make the event a big, consumer-friendly experience, according to MRC Live & Alternative president Adam Stotsky: | | ➽The show is scheduled to run for two hours, which is an hour less than on CBS. But unlike on TV, there will be zero outside commercials. With 20 minutes of ad time per hour now standard for many network telecasts, that means the 2022 ACMs will have almost exactly as much actual content as last year's broadcast. And while there will be one or two breaks where Prime plans to run some promos for various Amazon products and shows, Stotksy promises those moments will add up to "maybe two" minutes in total. | | ➽Instead of taking place in an arena or theater, as is common for most awards shows, this year's ACMs are being held at the roughly 70,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas. "It's a huge creative canvas," says Stotsky, adding that the added acreage will allow producers to set up at least four different mini-stages for performances and awards presentations. That will help make up for the fact that, without frequent breaks for commercials, producers won't have extra time to reset for new performances. | | ➽Basing the show at a stadium will also give the entire night the vibe of a big in-person concert vs. a stuffy awards presentation. "We think of this as a concert first and foremost, and secondarily, as a television show," Stotsky says. "We don't have to have outros into the commercial breaks. We can go from act to act to act, or award to award to award….We don't need to service anything other than the consumer." | | ➽While the number of awards presented at Monday's show won't decrease from past years, the time spent on awards will be reduced. "The way we're going to do it is going to be much more efficient," Stotksy says, explaining that, for example, awards may be given out in pairs. Performers won't have to forego acceptance speeches, however, the exec insists. "We're still highlighting and celebrating the year's best work and the artists that fans love and want to celebrate," he says. "I think we're going to do it in a slightly elevated way that will feel new and fresh." | | Not surprisingly, since it will now be an Amazon event, the ACMs will be monetized as well as (digitally) televised. "What's been really unique for us on this event is the opportunity to not only build a great televisual experience for Prime Video, but to also tap into what's referred to as the Amazon flywheel," Stotsky says. That means that in addition to a live red carpet pre-show on Prime, there will be a so-called "shoppable" remix of the same hour on Amazon Live, the company's influencer-powered version of QVC. Viewers will be able to snag merch from artists performing on the show or pre-order Parton's upcoming album and book, as well as Amazon Fashion products geared toward the country music audience. Amazon Music and Amazon-owned Twitch will also be heavily involved in promoting the show. "There are all these potential touchpoints to make this more than just a TV event," Stotsky says, referring to the 2022 vintage ACM as "a total lifestyle experience for country music customers." And not just here in the States: Prime Video will also stream the ACMs live in Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, allowing for more immediate global reach than during the CBS years. | | While Amazon will be pushing hard to get audiences to tune in live on Monday, the ACMs will also be available for on-demand viewing after the show wraps. What's more, following a one-day exclusive window on Prime, a replay of the show will begin streaming on IMDb TV, Amazon's free, ad-supported streaming service, as will a version with just the musical performances. "The cutdown will just remove those award beats, and it'll be a nonstop concert event," Stotsky says. Amazon Music is also planning to make the show available to its customers on March 10. | | Because Amazon doesn't reveal ratings, measuring whether the ACMs on streaming works won't be a straightforward process. Stotsky says MRC and Prime "obviously want to deliver as many folks as possible" to the initial telecast and the replays, but that how much the show moves the needle in other areas — such as the aforementioned e-commerce integrations — will also be important. Either way, we'll probably get some idea what Amazon thinks within a few months: The company only made a one-year licensing deal with MRC, so if the experiment disappoints the company likely won't be back for the 2023 show. | | Should the Oscars Take Note? | | As the ACMs prepare to enter the streaming age, the big news on the awards show front continues to be the absolutely predictable backlash to the news that this year's Academy Awards will present a handful of tech honors an hour before the live ABC broadcast begins. Viewers of the main show will still see winners in every category: Producers plan to insert edited versions of their acceptance speeches. But since it won't be seen live, and because some winners will probably see their remarks pared down, various guilds within the Academy, as well as Film Twitter, are pretty peeved. | | I am not going to take a position on the wisdom or stupidity of these changes, at least not publicly. There are valid reasons for ABC (and thus the Academy) to want to make a change, and there are likewise legit concerns that the result of the adjustments will make the Oscars less special without doing much to increase ratings. But let's just assume the announced format goes forward as planned. Why not simply allow film fans who crave the Full Oscar Experience the chance to do that by putting the not-for-ABC first hour of the show on Disney+, Hulu, or both? | | CBS did something like this with the 2021 Tony Awards, turning the ceremonies into a promotional tool for sister streamer Paramount+. It seems a no-brainer to make the Oscars a similarly multiplatform show, particularly when the Academy's current plan is to simply tweet out the 7-8 p.m. ET winners as they're announced to the audience inside the Dolby Theater. You could give this pre-show ceremony a fancy title (maybe "Oscar's Opening Act") and make sure the presenters are still A-listers. I think this would also have the benefit of making the nominees and winners in the affected categories feel less like second-class citizens. After all, it's 2022, and whether something airs on the ABC Television Network or streams on Disney+ and Hulu doesn't really make much of a difference. Heck, Disney currently spends a lot more money and marketing dollars on its two streamers than ABC, so in some ways, they're actually more prestigious than ABC, even if they don't individually reach quite as many homes. Putting Oscar's first hour on streaming won't silence all the critics of this year's changes, but it would at least be a good faith effort to address their concerns. |  | ![]() | | | | | | Sign up to receive Vulture's 10x10 crossword every weekday. | | Enjoying Buffering? Share this email with your network or sign up to get the newsletter in your inbox every week. | | | |
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