Raphael Stevens

A 400-kilowatt Tesla solar power plant supplies 95% of energy at the Xigera Safari Lodge, a Red Carnation Hotel Collection property in Botswana’s Okavango Delta.The Travel CorporationThe Travel Corporation, which owns and operates 40 travel brands — including guided vacation companies, hotels and transportation providers — has announced a five-step Climate Action Plan to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030 and continue existing efforts to achieve its corporate sustainability goals.The plan, announced on Earth Day as President Joe Biden pledged to halve U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in the same timeframe, will see privately-held The Travel Corporation not only implement the five steps of its new plan but also launch a new online “impact hub” at Impact.TreadRight.org where consumers can track the effort’s progress. In addition, the firm and its nonprofit, Treadright Foundation, will invest $100,000 in two  “nature-based” carbon removal solutions, Project Vesta and GreenWave.While Cypress, California-based The Travel Corporation first launched its sustainability strategy in 2014, a formal effort to address its carbon emissions began in 2019, said Chief Executive Brett Tollman.More from Personal Finance:The most popular spots Americans are booking this summerTop-rated frequent flyer programs can cut travel costsHere’s what post-pandemic travel might look like”At the time, the U.S. had pulled out of the landmark Paris Agreement, and we felt we needed to chart our own course to reducing our emissions and take leadership within the industry,” he said. “I applaud Joe Biden’s re-entry to the Paris Agreement.”This will hopefully accelerate innovations in clean energy, electric vehicles, carbon capture and removal, and other areas where investments are greatly needed to support the transition to a low-carbon economy,” Tollman added.The new Climate Action Plan directly addresses the first two goals of The Travel Corporation’s sustainability strategy, which focus on the company’s carbon footprint: sourcing 50% of electricity used across the organization from renewables by 2025 and then becoming carbon-neutral by 2030. Climate change, or global warming, is thought by the vast majority of scientists to be tied to increases in emissions of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.The Travel Corporation Climate Action PlanThe Climate Action Plan adopted by The Travel Corporation consists of five points:Measure: Measure the emissions from business and trips.Reduce: Build on reduction efforts and set ambitious reduction targets by mid-2022.Remove: Through the TreadRight Foundation, invest in new technology and nature-based solutions to remove excess carbon from the atmosphere.Offset: Purchase carbon credits to offset unavoidable emissions, including phasing in carbon-neutral trips between 2022 and 2030.Evolve: Continue to learn from others, invest in new technologies and support strategic alliances that enable the Travel Corp. and the industry to move to a low-carbon economy. Source: The Travel CorporationThe travel and transportation industries are often cited as major producers of these emissions. “De-carbonization of air travel is a critical next step towards a low-carbon future, and there are technological advancements in the sector that we applaud and eagerly follow,” said Tollman. “Our Climate Action Plan prioritizes emissions reductions and removal.”The measures impact The Travel Corporation’s 20-plus offices, 18 Red Carnation Hotels, 13 Uniworld ships, six accommodations facilities, over 500 vehicles and more than 1,500 itineraries operated globally by 40 guided vacation brands such as Contiki, Trafalgar and Insight Vacations.As part of these efforts, the company has installed solar panels at the Encino, California, headquarters of Uniworld; implemented a 400-kilowatt Tesla plant that supplies 95% of energy at the Xigera Safari Lodge in Botswana; and switched to 100% renewable electricity at resorts Chateau de Cruix in France, Haus Schöneck in Austria and Ashford Castle in Ireland.By Jan. 1, 2022, The Travel Corporation will have carbon-neutral offices and business travel, via carbon offset partner South Pole, and its Contiki division will be completely carbon-neutral, too.As to any possible expense or impact on prices because of the measures, Tollman said the impact is worth it. “Our efforts to integrate sustainability into our business are not new, they have been evolving since the launch of our Foundation,” he said. “This has not resulted in higher costs, but certainly greater value.”Despite pushback on environmental policies and measures in some quarters of U.S. society, Tollman’s unconcerned about any impact on bookings. “Regardless of political ideologies, we welcome travelers from all over the world,” he said. “That’s why our sustainability goals impact the way we operate — so it’s not up to the traveler to agree or disagree with our practices, it’s just the way we do business.” More

Cushman & Wakefield CEO Brett White on Friday offered a positive long-term outlook on the commercial real estate market, telling CNBC he expects a booming economy to compensate for companies that trim their office footprint due to an embrace of remote work.”As we think about the immediate near term … we’re looking at about a 10% to 15% reduction in demand of office space,” White said in an interview on “Closing Bell.””But it’s important to remember that over the next two to three years, that will be fully mitigated by the creation of new jobs that the U.S. economy and the global economy will produce,” added White, who has led the global commercial real estate firm since 2015.White’s comments Friday came in response to a question about recent remarks from Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase. In his annual letter to the bank’s shareholders, Dimon said JPMorgan will adopt a more open seating arrangement in its offices, among other Covid pandemic-related adjustments.”As a result, for every 100 employees, we may need seats for only 60 on average. This will significantly reduce our need for real estate,” Dimon wrote in the letter, which also discussed what he sees as the benefits of being in the office and shortcomings of remote work.Dimon’s insight into how the nation’s biggest bank by assets is thinking through Covid-related changes to operations comes as more people are getting vaccinated against the coronavirus. That’s seen as a critical step in bringing employees back to the office, at least part-time, after the pandemic last year prompted a widespread embrace of remote work in white-collar jobs.The pandemic will continue to impact the commercial real estate market throughout 2021 and into 2022, White said. However, he noted that while some companies are reducing their office footprint as they adopt more flexible working policies, there are those such as Facebook that signed leases for additional space.”The commercial real estate market is driven by multiple dynamics,” said White, an industry veteran who was CEO of CBRE from 2005 to 2012. “Right now we’ve got the lessening of space because of Covid and a different style of working … but then also, we also have this economy now absolutely roaring back and creating new jobs.””So, yeah, you’ll see buildings that have more vacant space this year and probably next year than they’ve had in a long time,” he added. “But in the midterm, two to three years, that space should be taken up again.”Shares of Cushman & Wakefield rose by 1.26% on Friday to finish at nearly $17 apiece. The stock is up 14.23% year to date. The Chicago-based company is expected to report first-quarter earnings on May 6. More

In this articleKMXHDDALDGLOWKOA shopper walks by shelves in the paper products aisle of a store in Burbank, California, November 19, 2020.Robyn Beck | AFP | Getty ImagesIn a typical earnings season, the rules of the game for investors can be relatively simple: Rising profits and strong year-over-year sales growth signal success.That formula won’t work in the coming quarters.Some companies, including Walmart and Dollar General, have begun to lap challenging year-over-year comparisons. That means sales growth and e-commerce gains may look disappointing when compared with soaring numbers during the height of the pandemic. Others, like clothing retailers such as Macy’s and Kohl’s, major airlines such as Delta Air Lines and hotel chains such as Wyndham, are poised for growth that will look eye-popping when compared with a time when malls were shuttered and travel ground to a near halt.Once again, investors will navigate uncharted waters because of the pandemic. They will have to suss out the significance of companies’ quarterly performances, as the way that people lived, worked and spent money a year ago skews the numbers. And they will have to filter out factors that may better reflect unusual times rather than lasting demand, such as shopping sprees fueled by stimulus checks and a reopening economy.”Welcome to the upside-down world,” said Jharonne Martis, director of consumer research at Refinitiv. “We have never had a comparable period. What’s good doesn’t mean it’s good. And what’s negative could actually mean they [the companies] did well.”Customers shop in the meat section of Kroger Marketplace in Versailles, Kentucky, U.S., on Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2020.Scotty Perry | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesDifferent approachesInvestors are eager to see how companies are faring in the recovery. The question is: compared with what?Some pandemic beneficiaries, such as Dollar General and Kroger, are sharing a new metric: A two-year stack, which blends together comparable sales for last year and this year. Comparable sales, also called same-store sales, is an industry term that measures year-over-year growth excluding locations that are newly opened or under renovation.Dollar General, for example, had higher-than-usual same-store sales growth during the pandemic, but expects some of that to fade as consumers can spend their dollars more freely. For example, some shoppers went to its stores and filled up bigger baskets because safety concerns had them looking to make one stop or competitors were temporarily closed.Zoom In IconArrows pointing outwardsChief Financial Officer John Garratt said during an earnings call that the discounter anticipates same-store sales will decline by between 4% and 6% year over year. Looking over two years, however, that same performance looks better: Dollar General said it anticipates growth of about 10% to 12% in same-store sales on a two-year stack basis.Airlines have tried a different tack, providing a mix of comparisons to both 2019 and 2020 in earnings reports, depending on the data point. Delta Air Lines attributed its approach to the “drastic and unprecedented impact of the pandemic.””A comparison of our results in 2021 to 2019 allows for an understanding of the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the progress of our recovery,” the airline said.The pandemic devastated the travel industry perhaps more than any other, and U.S. airlines lost more than $35 billion combined in 2020. The number of passengers tumbled by more than 60% to about 370 million people, the lowest number since 1984, and airlines reduced operations in response.Air travel demand has bounced back from the depths of the pandemic as more people are vaccinated, governments lift travel restrictions and more tourist attractions open, but it is still far off pre-pandemic levels, as people largely continue to skip business and long-haul international trips.The Transportation Security Administration screened an average of 1.4 million people in April through Wednesday. That’s more than 13 times the 103,000 people it screened a year ago, as the U.S. first shut down, but it’s down 35% from the same period of 2019. Savanthi Syth, an airline analyst at Raymond James, said she is comparing results and guidance to 2019 but will go back to year-over-year comparisons next year. In a research note, she said comparing this year to 2019 “gives you an idea of how 2021 compares to ‘normal.'”Coca-Cola and CarMax have compared their numbers with pre-pandemic numbers as well. Coke emphasized on its earnings call this week that its global unit case volume in March had bounced back to 2019 levels, even as total first-quarter demand was still below levels seen before the health crisis as Europe and North America recover.CarMax CEO Bill Nash‌‍‎‏ said the used car retailer’s “very volatile year” reflects government restrictions, not consumer demand. That’s why he said on an earnings call earlier this month that 2019 is a better reference point.For instance, he said, CarMax’s locations in California significantly underperformed the rest of the company as the state’s requirement for lower occupancy limited customer foot traffic — and ultimately, sales.’Smoothing it out’As companies dug out from the global financial crisis in 2010, there were unusually large growth rates, said John Butters, senior earnings analyst for FactSet. Just as they did then, he said, investors will have to “keep the growth rate in context.””Earnings are improving but you’re comparing against a very weak base, and that’s why some of these numbers are much larger than we usually see,” he said.After the pandemic, however, there will be distinct groups: Companies that see a sharp rebound from extremely depressed sales and companies that see sales growth level off or decline when pandemic tailwinds fade, and perhaps, a third group: ones that can sustain momentum.Refinitiv’s Martis pointed to two examples that capture that “upside-down” dynamic. Delta’s growth rate for revenue is expected to more than quadruple in the fiscal second quarter when compared with a year prior, according to Refinitiv. However, its estimated revenue for the quarter is $6.22 billion — less than half of the $12.54 billion that it reported during that same quarter in 2019 before the pandemic.On the other hand, Walmart’s growth rate for revenue is expected to decline by 2.2% year over year in the fiscal first quarter — a drop that would usually signal weakness and cause concern. Yet its estimated revenue of $131.66 billion is projected to be stronger than its pre-pandemic revenue of $123.93 billion during the same quarter in 2019.Still, Refinitiv isn’t planning to use two-year stacks, Martis said.”It’s kind of masking the dramatic changes we’re seeing in percentage changes. It’s smoothing it out,” she said. “But it really doesn’t make it comparable to previous times.”Martis and Butters both said their financial data firms will instead try to explain what the numbers mean — and how to take steep jumps or drop-offs with a grain of salt.She said she sees 2021 as a transition year. She said she anticipates consumer patterns will evolve rather than snap back, as people gradually get vaccines, get comfortable trying on clothes again in fitting rooms or see the need to buy new pairs of shoes or work outfits. It may take until early next year for companies and investors to see more predictable patterns, she said.”2021 is almost like hitting a reset button,” she said.’Your worst enemy’For many, the most jarring pandemic comparisons won’t kick in until the second quarter, said Matt Miskin, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management. The first calendar quarter captured only a week or two of stay-at-home behaviors.Initially, he said, the comparisons will make some companies that had a huge downward dip during the pandemic look good — only to potentially bite them as spending patterns settle into some kind of normal. For stay-at-home companies, that will hit first. It could hit again for those who see a spending spree in 2021 that cools off in 2022.”The comps are going to go from your best friend to your worst enemy,” he said.Other data points will be telling, too, Refinitiv’s Martis said. Among them, she said is e-commerce growth. She will watch to see how retailers hold on to recent gains. She said she will also pay attention to companies’ margins to see how much money each can make. That will reveal whether discounts were needed to move merchandise and if the retailers have learned to efficiently juggle brick-and-mortar and online businesses.Forecasts are backButters of FactSet said it will be helpful to have many companies providing forecasts again — something that largely stopped last year. The guidance and analysts’ estimates provide helpful reference points, he said, and it remains a positive sign if companies can outpace these benchmarks.Yet more so than in the past, judging a company’s strength or weakness will be a “very company-specific exercise,” said Zack Fadem, a senior equity analyst for Wells Fargo. The backdrop for industries varies, he said. Some companies happen to be in hot sectors — like home improvement retailers that will continue to benefit from the real estate market even if pandemic-fueled “nesting” recedes. For those, he said the “wall of worry” about comparable numbers could get pushed to next year.Plus, he said, consumer spending could rise across the board as Americans deploy money they stashed in savings or got from the government. He said if the overall pie grows, it’s important to compare a company to its competitors and see if its market share grows or shrinks.”With the benefits of stimulus and strong consumers, you’ve got other noise to comb through to determine if the business got better or worse,” he said.— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this story. Nate Rattner contributed the data visualization. More

A son hugs his mother as a concessions worker hands over napkins and soda inside the AMC movie theater at the Westfield Century City shopping mall in Los Angeles, California, on Monday, March 15, 2021.Bing Guan | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesThe Small Business Administration announced Friday that it will reopen an application portal on Saturday for struggling event venues, movie theaters and other performance groups to apply for Covid relief grants.The portal will begin taking applications on a first-come-first-serve basis Saturday at 12:30 p.m. ET.The federal agency temporarily suspended the program, known as the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, due to technical glitches during its launch on April 8. The botched rollout angered those in the industry who are desperately waiting for some assistance. More than $16.2 billion has been allocated to help keep entertainment venues, museums and performing arts organizations in business until in-person events can resume safely.”We recognize the urgency and need to get this program up and running,” said Barb Carson, deputy associate administrator of SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance, in a press release.To ensure a more seamless application process, the SBA said it improved security mechanisms in the application portal and added a waiting room feature to combat the large influx of interested applicants.”With venue operators in danger of closing, every day that passes by is a day that these businesses cannot afford,” said Carson. “We remain dedicated to delivering emergency aid as quickly as possible and will begin reviewing the applications on Saturday as they are submitted.” More

James Shaw, 82, receives the Oxford University/AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine from advanced nurse practitioner Justine Williams, at the Lochee Health Centre in Dundee, Scotland, Britain January 4, 2021.Andy Buchanan | ReutersLONDON — A single dose of Oxford-AstraZeneca or Pfizer-BioNTech’s Covid-19 vaccine drastically reduces the risk of infection in adults of all ages, British researchers have found.Two studies released on Friday analyzed more than 1.6 million nose and throat swabs taken from 373,402 people between December and April. The data was collected as part of the ongoing Covid-19 Infection Survey, carried out by the University of Oxford, the U.K.’s Office of National Statistics and the U.K.’s Department for Health and Social Care.Researchers found that 21 days after a single dose of either the Oxford-AstraZeneca or the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, new Covid infections — both symptomatic and asymptomatic — had fallen by 65%.Symptomatic infections fell by 74% three weeks after a single dose of either vaccine, while asymptomatic cases were down by 57%, the data showed.A second vaccine dose reduced the overall infection rate by 70%, with symptomatic Covid infections down by 90% and asymptomatic cases of the virus cut by 49%.Researchers likened these effects to the natural immunity gained from being infected with the virus.However, they warned that the fact that vaccinated individuals could still be infected — even if those infections were predominantly asymptomatic — meant “onward transmission remained a possibility.”Vaccines had a similar affect in adults of all ages when it came to reducing infection rates, the study found, with their ability to reduce infections also similar regardless of whether or not participants had long-term health conditions. What about antibody resistance?Scientists also examined the impact Covid vaccinations had on participants’ antibody levels.  They found that older adults — particularly among those over the age of 60 — who had never contracted Covid had a lower immune response to a single vaccine dose than those who had been infected with the virus before.Antibody responses to two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were high across all age groups, data showed, meaning that older adults were able to reach similar antibody levels to those who had received one vaccine dose after previous Covid infection.Too few people had received two doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine in the U.K. for researchers to assess its impact on antibody response. However, it was noted that immune responses to a first dose differed between the Oxford-AstraZeneca and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.Antibody levels rose more slowly following a single dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine than the Pfizer-BioNTech alternative — however, antibody levels dropped more quickly following a dose of the latter, particularly in older adults, so that patients reached similar levels of antibodies to those seen after a first shot of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.Although immune responses differed among age groups, scientists emphasized that there was no group that didn’t respond to either vaccine. However, a small number of people — less than 5% — had low immune responses to both vaccines.Important to receive second doseThe Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine has been approved for use in the U.K., India and several other countries, but it has faced temporary suspensions in some markets over concerns it could be linked to rare blood clots. Global health officials have said that the benefits of administering the vaccine continue to outweigh the risks.The WHO recommends an interval of eight to 12 weeks between the first and second dose of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine.  The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is also being administered in multiple countries, including the United States. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends receiving a second dose of the vaccine three weeks after the first. In February, the U.K. launched a trial to investigate whether mixing doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines could be effective.Sarah Walker, professor of medical statistics and epidemiology at the University of Oxford and chief investigator and academic lead on the Covid-19 Infection Survey, said on Friday that scientists still weren’t sure how much of an antibody response, and for how long, was needed for long-term protection against Covid.David Eyre, associate professor at Oxford University’s Big Data Institute, added that the findings published Friday highlighted the importance of receiving a second vaccine dose for increased protection. More

Customers dine at Picos Restaurant, which received threats following their announcement of continuing to require masks, as the state of Texas prepares to lift its mask mandate and reopen businesses to full capacity during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Houston, Texas, March 9, 2021.Callaghan O’Hare | ReutersThe risk of being exposed to Covid-19 indoors is as great at 60 feet as it is at 6 feet — even when wearing a mask, according to a new study by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers who challenge social distancing guidelines adopted across the world.MIT professors Martin Z. Bazant, who teaches chemical engineering and applied mathematics, and John W.M. Bush, who teaches applied mathematics, developed a method of calculating exposure risk to Covid-19 in an indoor setting that factors in a variety of issues that could affect transmission, including the amount of time spent inside, air filtration and circulation, immunization, variant strains, mask use, and even respiratory activity such as breathing, eating, speaking or singing.Bazant and Bush question long-held Covid-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the World Health Organization in a peer-reviewed study published earlier this week in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science of the United States of America.”We argue there really isn’t much of a benefit to the 6-foot rule, especially when people are wearing masks,” Bazant said in an interview. “It really has no physical basis because the air a person is breathing while wearing a mask tends to rise and comes down elsewhere in the room so you’re more exposed to the average background than you are to a person at a distance.”The important variable the CDC and the WHO have overlooked is the amount of time spent indoors, Bazant said. The longer someone is inside with an infected person, the greater the chance of transmission, he said.Opening windows or installing new fans to keep the air moving could also be just as effective or more effective than spending large amounts of money on a new filtration system, he said.Bazant also says that guidelines enforcing indoor occupancy caps are flawed. He said 20 people gathered inside for 1 minute is probably fine, but not over the course of several hours, he said.”What our analysis continues to show is that many spaces that have been shut down in fact don’t need to be. Often times the space is large enough, the ventilation is good enough, the amount of time people spend together is such that those spaces can be safely operated even at full capacity and the scientific support for reduced capacity in those spaces is really not very good,” Bazant said. “I think if you run the numbers, even right now for many types of spaces you’d find that there is not a need for occupancy restrictions.”Six-feet social distancing rules that inadvertently result in closed businesses and schools are “just not reasonable,” according to Bazant.”This emphasis on distancing has been really misplaced from the very beginning. The CDC or WHO have never really provided justification for it, they’ve just said this is what you must do and the only justification I’m aware of, is based on studies of coughs and sneezes, where they look at the largest particles that might sediment onto the floor and even then it’s very approximate, you can certainly have longer or shorter range, large droplets,” Bazant said.”The distancing isn’t helping you that much and it’s also giving you a false sense of security because you’re as safe at 6 feet as you are at 60 feet if you’re indoors. Everyone in that space is at roughly the same risk, actually,” he noted.Pathogen-laced droplets travel through the air indoors when people talk, breathe or eat. It is now known that airborne transmission plays a huge role in the spread of Covid-19, compared with the earlier months of the pandemic where hand-washing was considered the leading recommendation to avoid transmission.Those droplets from one’s warm exhalation mix with body heat and air currents in the area to rise and travel throughout the entire room, no matter how socially distanced a person is. People seem to be more exposed to that “background” air than they are by droplets from a distance, according to the study.For example, if someone infected with Covid-19 is wearing a mask and singing loudly in an enclosed room, a person who is sitting at the other side of the room is not more protected than someone who is sitting just six feet away from the infected person. This is why time spent in the enclosed area is more important than how far you are from the infected person.Masks work in general to prevent transmission by blocking larger droplets, therefore larger droplets aren’t making up the majority of Covid infections because most people are wearing masks. The majority of people who are transmitting Covid aren’t coughing and sneezing, they’re asymptomatic.Masks also work to prevent indoor transmission by blocking direct plumes of air, best visualized by imagining someone exhaling smoke. Constant exposure to direct plumes of infectious air would result in a higher risk of transmission, though exposure to direct plumes of exhaled air doesn’t usually last long.Even with masks on, as with smoking, those who are in the vicinity are heavily affected by the secondhand smoke that makes its way around the enclosed area and lingers. The same logic applies to infectious airborne droplets, according to the study. When indoors and masked, factors besides distance can be more important to consider to avoid transmission.As for social distancing outdoors, Bazant says it makes almost no sense and that doing so with masks on is “kind of crazy.””If you look at the air flow outside, the infected air would be swept away and very unlikely to cause transmission. There are very few recorded instances of outdoor transmission.” he said. “Crowded spaces outdoor could be an issue, but if people are keeping a reasonable distance of like 3 feet outside, I feel pretty comfortable with that even without masks frankly.”Bazant says this could possibly explain why there haven’t been spikes in transmission in states like Texas or Florida that have reopened businesses without capacity limits.As for variant strains that are 60% more transmissible, increasing ventilation by 60%, reducing the amount of time spent inside or limiting the number of people indoors could offset that risk.Bazant also said that a big question that is coming will be when masks can be removed, and that the study’s guidelines can help quantify the risks involved. He also noted that measuring carbon dioxide in a room can also help quantify how much infected air is present and hence risk of transmission.”We need scientific information conveyed to the public in a way that is not just fearmongering but is actually based in analysis,” Bazant said. After three rounds of heavy peer review, he said it’s the most review he’s ever been through, and that now that it’s published he hopes it will influence policy. More

In this articleGOOGLTDISAn Oscar statue stands during a preview for the Governors Ball during the 91st annual Academy Awards week in Hollywood, on California, February 15, 2019.Valerie Macon | AFP | Getty ImagesThe 93rd Academy Awards are set to kick off Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.It’s been a long road to get to the 2021 Oscars ceremony. The event, which typically takes place in February, was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic and for the first time nominees did not have to be showcased in theaters to be eligible for awards.This year’s slate of award winners has the opportunity to be a historic one. After all, its nominees have already marked a number of firsts for the nearly 100-year-old ceremony.This year is the first time an all-Black producing team has been nominated for best picture, the first time two actors of Asian decent were nominated for best actor and the first year that two women have been nominated for best director.For those that wish to tune into the annual awards show, but don’t have cable, there are plenty of options.The ceremony will be available to stream on:Hulu with Live TVYouTube TVAT&T TVFubo TVABC.com or the ABC appWith filmmaker Steven Soderbergh at the helm, the ceremony itself will also be different this year.”Right out of the gate, people are going to know: ‘We’ve got to put our seat belt on,” Soderbergh told The Associated Press last week.He is producing the show alongside Stacey Sher and Jesse Collins and will seek to treat the telecast like a movie, not a TV show.”At any step in the creative process of making a movie, when I ask a question about why something is being done a certain way and the answer is, ‘Because that’s the way it’s always been done’ — that’s a real red flag for me,” Soderbergh said. “All of us this year have taken advantage of the opportunity that’s been presented to us to really challenge all the assumptions that go into an award show.”Oscars 2021 coverage from CNBCRead more about this year’s Academy Awards:’Nomadland’ leads the pack for best picture, but best actress award is wide openOscars sells out ad inventory despite awards show ratings declinesAs women directors enter the Oscar spotlight, here are 13 filmmakers to watchNetflix earns most Academy Award nominations in a year where diversity shines10 snubs and surprises from this year’s Academy Award nominationsUnlike previous years, there won’t be an audience, although there will be an attempt to host a red carpet show and nominees will attend the event in person. The base of the show will be the Dolby Theatre, but Los Angeles’ Union Station and the Art Deco-Mission Revival railway hub will also be featured.It’s unclear Soderbergh’s experimentation will translate into strong ratings. After all, televised award shows have, across the board in the last year, struggled to garner attention from viewers.Check out the full list of nominees for this year’s Academy Awards here. More