The Television Academy is reportedly in discussions to move the Primetime Emmy Awards to Amazon Prime Video, a shift that would end a 31-year tradition of rotating the ceremony among ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. The talks come just after the 78th Emmy Awards aired Monday night in Los Angeles, a ceremony that handed out all but one of its trophies to programs running on streaming platforms.
The discussions were first reported by Variety, and people familiar with the conversations told the Los Angeles Times that the Television Academy is exploring the switch. A Television Academy representative offered only a brief statement on the matter: “We're having conversations and when we have something to announce we will do so.” The move would follow the expiration of the Academy's eight-year, $8 million-per-year rights contract signed in 2018, which TheWrap notes closed out a rotation dating back to 1995.
Streaming Already Dominates the Nominations
The numbers help explain why broadcasters have grown weary of hosting the show. According to TheWrap, this year's nominations were led by HBO Max with 142 nods and Netflix with 120, followed by Apple TV+ with 79, while ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC combined for 99. Netflix, HBO Max and Apple TV devote more resources to prestige programming aimed at Emmy voters, and a broadcast network executive summed up the frustration to the Los Angeles Times: “It's a lot of effort and not a lot of return.” ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox are reportedly unhappy about producing and carrying a telecast that largely promotes their streaming competitors.
The Emmy ceremony's audience has held around 8 million viewers in recent years, per the Los Angeles Times, even as the broadcast runs more than three hours. Younger viewers increasingly prefer watching clips of speeches and red-carpet moments on social media rather than sitting through the full telecast. That dynamic tracks with numbers reported by Forbes: the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards on CBS drew 7.42 million broadcast-and-streaming viewers in September 2025, yet the broadcast generated an estimated 60.9 billion potential impressions across social media platforms, according to Forbes.
A Simulcast Idea That Didn't Pan Out
Before the Amazon talks advanced, Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego had explored a multi-network simulcast arrangement for the telecast, but the plan collapsed, according to ComingSoon.net. Netflix reportedly explored bidding for the Emmy rights in recent years as well but failed to reach an economically sensible deal, per the Los Angeles Times' reporting. Moving to Prime Video would put the Emmys behind a subscription paywall and remove the promotional support that a rights-holding broadcast network typically provides, including Emmy specials aired on affiliated stations and morning shows.
Should the deal go through, the Emmys would become the second major entertainment awards show this cycle to abandon broadcast television. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is already moving the Oscar telecast from ABC to YouTube starting in 2029, with ABC continuing through 2028, as reported by CBR and covered by Oscars leaving Hollywood. The Recording Academy has taken a different path, signing a 10-year deal moving the Grammys from CBS to ABC starting in February 2027 with simultaneous Hulu and Disney+ streams, according to Disney's own announcement of the agreement.
Amazon's Growing Live-Events Playbook
Netflix has already claimed one major award show, having acquired the Screen Actors Guild Awards under a multi-year global agreement and rebranding the live stream as The Actor Awards. Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, has aggressively pursued live events, mostly in sports, carrying the NFL's Thursday Night Football package and a significant portion of NBA television rights. A potential Emmy deal would extend a pattern Amazon set in 2022, when it acquired rights to the Academy of Country Music Awards, becoming the first major entertainment ceremony to leave broadcast TV.
The Emmy Awards remain one of the entertainment industry's marquee events, celebrating television programs across genres, and this year's ceremony played out at the Peacock Theater at L.A. LIVE in Downtown Los Angeles, the venue the Television Academy — headquartered on Lankershim Boulevard in North Hollywood — has used to present the show. The Peacock Theater has stayed busy this year as an entertainment hub, while the Television Academy's own Televerse 26 festival was held at the JW Marriott at L.A. Live in August. Snoop Dogg's hosting turn at the 2026 MTV VMAs is scheduled for September 27, a show covered by Hoodline.
