The Emmy Awards ceremony is set to shift towards live streaming on media platforms. According to a six-year agreement, starting from 2027, this prestigious event in the entertainment industry will be exclusively live-streamed by “Amazon Prime Video,” a streaming television service platform under Amazon, marking a significant departure from over 75 years of traditional broadcast television airing.
E-commerce giant Amazon and the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences announced this deal on Tuesday, October 6. As per the terms of the agreement, Prime Video will broadcast the Emmy Awards ceremony for six consecutive years and hold exclusive global broadcasting rights.
The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
The Television Academy, as the organizer of the Emmy Awards ceremony, mentioned in its latest annual report that previously, the event was broadcasted each year on rotation by the four major television networks in the United States, with an annual broadcasting rights value of around $9.5 million. The companies responsible for the rotational broadcasting included ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC.
This cost does not include the production expenses of the televised awards ceremony, which are covered by the network that secures the broadcasting rights.
Under the agreement, Prime Video will offer free streaming of the annual Emmy Awards ceremony to viewers worldwide, including non-subscribers, reaching over 240 countries and regions.
In the press release announcing this news, the agreement referred to Prime Video as the “longtime home” of the Emmy Awards, a stark contrast to the rotating broadcasting method employed in previous years.
This move represents the latest example of traditional television programs transitioning to streaming services. Last year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences signed an agreement to livestream the Oscars ceremony on the YouTube platform starting from 2029.
Additionally, since 2024, streaming giant Netflix has been broadcasting the Screen Actors Guild Awards, now renamed the Actor Awards.
(Information sourced and inspired by reporting from The Wall Street Journal)