Emmy Awards moving to Prime Video in 6-year streaming deal

Andrew Dalton · CBC News

· Posted: Oct 06, 2026 11:33 AM EDT | Last Updated: 5 minutes ago

The Emmy Awards are moving to Prime Video starting in 2027 in a six-year deal struck between Amazon and the Television Academy that ends a seven-decade run of broadcast networks airing the ceremony.

The agreement announced Tuesday means a shift to the streaming services that have come to dominate the prestige categories at the Emmys.

The awards show has aired on one of the four broadcast networks every year since 1955. NBC was first to air it nationally, and hosted it last month. For the past three decades, it has been in a yearly rotation between ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, in what was known as the "Wheel Deal."

Having a single, long-term home starting with next September's awards may be the biggest change.

"Continuity is a big part of what we're looking for, because the rotating part of it basically meant in many ways that we were starting over every year," Cris Abrego, chairman of the Television Academy, told The Associated Press. "With one partner over six years, we can really learn together and build from year to year together."

No subscription required

The Emmys will continue to air free of charge as it always has, a demand the Academy made from the start to its suitors. No Prime Video subscription will be required to watch.

• Oscars ceremony will be streamed on YouTube exclusively starting in 2029

The move echoes the Oscars' deal announced in December sending them to YouTube and ending their own, equally long relationship with broadcast networks.

Unlike that agreement, announced in 2025 and starting in 2029, this one is effective immediately.

"We're on the clock, we gotta get rolling," Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, told the AP.

Drop in viewership

Nearly all awards shows have seen steep drops in viewership in a more segmented culture, and the Emmys have consistently lagged behind the Oscars, Grammys and Golden Globes, despite the growing acclaim for the shows they honour.

At its peak, the Emmys drew more than 20 million viewers. The figure now hovers around seven million.

The Academy and Amazon said Prime Video might be in a position to change that as a place where so much of the Emmys programming can be viewed, whether it's a Prime production or a streaming partnership. The biggest winners at the last two Emmys, Widow's Bay and The Studio, can both be watched on Prime Video through its partnership with Apple TV.

"I think we're going to be able to increase the viewership over time on this show, age it down, actually bring in a younger audience, which I think is a catalyst to growing," Hopkins said. "We will have the opportunity throughout the year to be promoting Emmy nominees to our customers as a way of saying, 'Hey, watch these shows, but also watch the Emmys.'"

And while Abrego acknowledged the significance of the move to streaming and its implications, he said the content is far more important than how it's delivered.

"The Academy has never defined television by how it reaches your screen or even which screen it reaches," he said. "The goal is to consistently want to recognize excellence wherever it comes from."

• 2026 Emmys: Widow's Bay upsets, The Pitt triumphs at Canada-preoccupied ceremony

Live events on Amazon are hardly a novelty anymore. It's been nearly a decade since Prime first aired an NFL game and many other major sports and events have followed.

"We look at our service as something that's a hybrid between live and on-demand, and we've made live a real priority," Hopkins said.

The Emmy Awards are moving to Prime Video starting in 2027 in a six-year deal struck between Amazon and the Television Academy. (Patrick Semansky/The Associated Press)

The ceremony will stay in September in 2027, but that doesn't mean that month is set for the run of the agreement.

"We had conversations with Amazon, if we wanted to change that date moving forward with time, we could explore it and we would be open to it," Abrego said.