Red-hot HBO scores a big haul at the Emmy Awards

HBO picked a fitting theme — fire — to inspire its Emmy night festivities.

A rotating 27-foot-high golden flame sculpture was the focal point of HBO’s 67th Primetime Emmy Awards after-party at the Pacific Design Center in West Hollywood. Celebrities, agents and other guests nearly melted from Sunday night’s sweltering heat and the shoulder-to-shoulder crowds that jammed the venue.

HBO was clearly on fire. The premium pay-TV network captured 43 Primetime Emmy Awards this year — a record for the network — sweeping the major award categories, including wins for outstanding drama series for “Game of Thrones,” outstanding comedy series for the political satire “Veep” and outstanding limited series for “Olive Kitteridge.”

FULL COVERAGE: Emmys 2015

The big night came as HBO has been working to establish itself as the industry’s leading TV service amid a tumultuous and fragmented pay-TV landscape.

The gold statuettes help polish HBO’s patina on two crucial fronts: The network solidified its position as a first-stop for Hollywood’s writers, producers and actors shopping for a home for their projects. It also provided a potent marketing hook as the Time Warner Inc. division recruits new customers for its stand-alone streaming service, HBO Now.

“Awards are more important than ever before,” said Larry Gerbrandt, a longtime media analyst. “HBO has walked into what’s going to be a battle of the titans — against Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google and Apple — and these awards remind people that quality does make a difference.”

HBO more than doubled its prize total from last year, when the network was nearly shut out in the top Emmy categories when AMC’s “Breaking Bad” was savoring the acclaim of its final season and the ABC sitcom “Modern Family” remained a viewer favorite. The network easily surpassed its total from 2004, when it captured 32 Emmys on the strength of “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City” and “Angels in America.”

In fact, HBO collected more Emmy Awards than the next five programming services combined. NBC was a distant second with 12 Emmys, and Comedy Central and FX Networks tied for third with eight each. Streaming service leaders Amazon.com, which fielded the critical darling “Transparent,” won five Emmys, while Netflix mustered just four.

PHOTOS: Emmys 2015 Top nminees and winners | Red carpet | Show highlights

“Once in a while, the stars align and beautiful things happen ... and that’s what happened,” HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo said during the after-party, where attendees danced to Shakira cover songs and dined on cuisine provided by Wolfgang Puck, including roasted bass, New York steak, baby artichokes, brown butter beets and pickled wild mushroom succotash.

“We’ve sat through many of these nights where we’ve had a lot of nominations and don’t leave on top of the world,” Lombardo said, “So I am enjoying this night and realizing it’s an amazing moment.”

At a time when there are an estimated 400 scripted series crowding television schedules this year, even deep-pocketed and prestigious networks such as HBO have found it increasingly difficult to stand out. HBO now has to market its own streaming service, a departure from years past when it could rely on cable companies to sell the channel.

The fast rise of Netflix and Amazon prodded HBO to pivot its business strategy. In April, it began offering the stand-alone $14.99-a-month HBO Now streaming service with the hope of capturing new viewers in the 10 million homes in the U.S. without a pay-TV subscription. The new offering also could prompt some pay-TV customers to scale back their programming packages and instead load up on a couple of streaming options, such as HBO and Netflix.

“This gives HBO an important promotional hook,” Gerbrandt said of the network’s Emmy haul. “As people are making a financial decision about what services they will subscribe to and what programming they will watch, these Emmy wins are like money in the bank for HBO.”

HBO declined to say how many subscribers HBO Now has. The cable network has an estimated 32 million subscribers who take the service as an add-on to their pay-TV package. Netflix, for example, boasts more than 42 million subscribers for its streaming service in the U.S.

The field has become more competitive as the streaming services bid top dollar for programming. For example, this month movie service Epix ended its five-year relationship with Netflix to strike a deal with Hulu. That means these services must spend more money on programming as they continue to develop a deep bench of quality shows to differentiate their services from competitors.

In 2014, the Home Box Office business segment, which includes HBO channels and Cinemax, recorded revenue of $5.4 billion (19% of Time Warner’s total revenue) and operating income of $1.8 billion.

Sunday’s Emmy telecast had several big moments, including a first-ever win for an African American woman, Viola Davis, for lead actress in a drama for her role in ABC’s “How to Get Away With Murder.” And after seven previous losses, Jon Hamm, who portrayed Don Draper in AMC’s “Mad Men,” was recognized as the best lead actor in a drama.

But the big winner was HBO’s “Game of Thrones,” based on George R.R. Martin’s book series.

The fantasy drama surpassed all others — 12 Emmy wins, a feat for a show in the fantasy genre. In addition to the outstanding drama honor, actor Peter Dinklage won for best supporting actor in a drama, and David Nutter won for outstanding directing for a drama series.

“It’s the first time in a very long time that a big, popular show won best drama series,” Lombardo said.

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“Game of Thrones” averages one of the biggest audiences in all of television with 20 million viewers on the various platforms, including TV and on-demand services.

“Sometimes it feels like the Emmys is antithetical. If it’s popular, it can’t be a winner,” Lombardo said. “This somehow broke the paradigm.”

HBO’s four-hour miniseries “Olive Kitteridge” scored eight Emmys, including key acting honors in the limited series category. Frances McDormand, Richard Jenkins and Bill Murray won their acting categories. The political comedy “Veep” won five Emmys, including outstanding lead actress in a comedy by Julia Louis-Dreyfus and the supporting actor trophy went to Tony Hale.

Emmy Awards also could provide a lure for movie stars who are considering taking a job in television. According to agents, when they pitch TV projects to their A-list talent, they often start the conversation by saying they might win an Emmy.

“The key to the momentum are the people who come to work with us,” said HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler, who was mobbed at the HBO after-party by well-wishers, agents and reporters.

His table was just a few feet from the rotating flame and “Veep’s” red-sequined table that was awash in Emmy gold.

“We understand full well that that’s the key to how we will continue to raise the bar,” Plepler said. “And we hope to raise that bar some more next year.”

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