LOS ANGELES: Silicon Valley crashed Hollywood’s biggest awards show on Sunday as Amazon.com and Netflix collected the first Academy Awards for streaming services while independent studio A24 won the coveted best picture Oscar.
After upending television with acclaimed online series, Amazon and Netflix joined the ranks of the film industry’s elites with four gold statuettes between them.
Amazon Studios, a unit of e-commerce giant Amazon.com, scored a best actor trophy for Casey Affleck’s portrayal of a grieving man in “Manchester by the Sea.” The movie also won best original screenplay.
Amazon’s other accolade came for best foreign language film for Iranian drama “The Salesman,” which Amazon distributed in the US and Canada.
Netflix triumphed in the documentary short-subject category for 40-minute film “The White Helmets,” a look at rescue workers in war-torn Syria.
“Moonlight” had brought in $22.3 million in domestic ticket sales through Sunday, the smallest take among the best picture nominees, according to comScore data.
Oscar recognition can boost theater, DVD and digital sales for the winning films. Last year’s best picture honoree, “Spotlight,” took in $5.9 million at US and Canadian theaters after the award, comScore said.
For Amazon and Netflix, the accolades provide bragging rights they can use in marketing to help win customers to their subscription video services.
“It will make them a must-subscribe destination for film fans,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at comScore.
Amazon paid $10 million for “Manchester by the Sea” at the Sundance film festival. The movie has earned $46.8 million at domestic theaters, and will appear later this year on Amazon’s Prime Video service.
Among all studios, Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. took home the most trophies including six wins for musical romance “La La Land” and two for “Hacksaw Ridge.” Walt Disney Co. won four including best animated feature for “Zootopia” and best documentary for ESPN’s “O.J.: Made in America.”
Amazon, Netflix grab a share of Oscar glory
Amazon, Netflix grab a share of Oscar glory
Eurovision Sport, Camb.ai to provide live subtitling for Paralympic Winter Games
- Partnership aims to increase accessibility for all audiences
- Milano Cortina Games run from Friday to March 15
LONDON: Eurovision Sport, the European Broadcasting Union’s free-to-air streaming platform, will provide live and on-demand subtitling for coverage of the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games in partnership with AI language company Camb.ai
The service will run across all competition days, allowing viewers to stream all six Paralympic Winter Games sports on Eurovision Sport with real-time subtitles. The Games open on Friday and run through March 15.
Camb.ai will supply contextual speech-to-text transcription for both live and catch-up coverage, which the organizers said would support accessibility without altering the editorial integrity of broadcasts.
Eurovision Sport Managing Director Alan Fagan said the aim was to make the Games available to “the widest possible audience,” by scaling up digital accessibility across every event on the platform.
The initiative forms part of the EBU’s most extensive digital coverage of a Paralympic Winter Games to date and complements member broadcasters’ linear output.
It also reflects a wider industry push to make live sport easier to follow for viewers watching without sound, people with hearing impairments and audiences consuming content on demand.
Camb.ai’s Chief Technology Officer Akshat Prakash said the company was proud to deepen its partnership with Eurovision Sport, describing the platform as a leader in applying new technology to sports coverage.
The two organizations began working together in 2024, when they delivered what they described as Europe’s first AI-powered real-time translated sports commentary during European Athletics events.
