As over-the-air (OTA) "free" TV prepares for its biggest event, the Superbowl, this weekend, it just received bad news last weekend from the annual Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards®. As in the Emmys and the Golden Globes, OTA TV is getting very small shares of these awards for programming excellence. As we wrote in September 2013 after the OTA crowd did poorly in the Emmys, maybe there is something basically wrong with the OTA TV business model of NAB's members today? Or perhaps the leaders of the broadcasting industry are spending too much effort on regulatory and legislative games rather than focusing on producing the programming that is attractive to the American public?

When your blogger started working at FCC in 1979 it was clear the biggest power brokers at FCC were NAB, Motorola, and (the then) AT&T. Motorola certainly has nothing near that status or market size today and a likely cause is that it tried repeatedly to use FCC regulation to maintain its market dominance rather than competing on technology and products. Perhaps the NAB membership is guilty of the same violation of the free market system? Will they meet the same fate?

So here are the SAG awards this year for TV. Of the 9 awards one went to PBS and one went to ABC - none to any of the other OTA TV broadcasters. Netflix got 3 awards and HBO got 2.

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
DOWNTON ABBEY (Masterpiece/PBS)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
VIOLA DAVIS / Annalise Keating – “HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER” (ABC)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
KEVIN SPACEY / Francis Underwood – “HOUSE OF CARDS” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
JEFFREY TAMBOR / Maura Pfefferman – “TRANSPARENT” (Amazon)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
UZO ADUBA / Suzanne “Crazy Eyes” Warren – “ORANGE IS THE NEW BLACK” (Netflix)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
QUEEN LATIFAH / Bessie Smith – “BESSIE” (HBO)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
IDRIS ELBA / DCI John Luther – “LUTHER” (BBC America)

Outstanding Action Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Comedy or Drama Series
“GAME OF THRONES” (HBO)

Source: Variety

Tags: broadcasting