Emmys move to Prime Video in 2027 in reported $120 million streaming deal

Amazon has struck a six-year deal to bring the Emmy Awards to Prime Video, taking one of television's signature live events off broadcast airwaves beginning with the 2027 ceremony. Announced on Tuesday, the agreement also gives the Emmys something they have never had before: a single, permanent home.

According to TechCrunch, the show has spent the past seven decades rotating among ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Prime Video will now carry it live in more than 240 countries and territories, and the stream will be free to watch — viewers will not need a Prime subscription to tune in. The Verge reports that the arrangement begins with the 2027 ceremony, which is set for next September.

What the rights reportedly cost

The official announcement left out the financial details; TechCrunch notes that the terms were not disclosed. But The Verge, citing Deadline, reports that Amazon is paying somewhere between $20 million and $25 million per year, which would put the total value of the six-year deal at upwards of $120 million.

Cris Abrego, chair of the Television Academy, said in a statement quoted by The Verge that broadcast partners had been "tremendous stewards of the Emmys for many years," and that a dedicated home on Prime Video would let the academy build on that legacy with "unprecedented global reach."

Declining ratings, shifting audiences

The move lands as the Emmys grapple with an audience drifting toward streaming. TechCrunch, citing the AP, reports that this year's 78th Primetime Emmy telecast on NBC drew 6.87 million viewers, down nearly 10 percent from the previous year — though still comfortably above the all-time low of 4.3 million viewers in January 2024.

The winners tell a similar story about where prestige television now lives. According to The Verge, Apple TV collected more Emmy wins than any other network at this year's ceremony, led by Widow's Bay, which picked up 14 awards.

The Emmys are also not the first marquee awards show to make this jump. Netflix has streamed the Screen Actors Guild Awards since 2024, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a deal last year to move the Oscars to YouTube starting in 2029. Streaming platforms, hungry for live appointment viewing, have been circling awards shows as tentpole events precisely because they still draw large, simultaneous audiences.

Why it matters

The deal marks another milestone in the migration of live television from broadcast to streaming. For broadcasters, losing the Emmys removes one of the few annual events that reliably deliver big, real-time audiences — programming that networks have leaned on as everyday viewing fragments. For Amazon, paying a reported $120 million or more to give the show away for free suggests the value lies less in driving subscriptions than in reach and in anchoring Prime Video as a destination for live events. And for the Television Academy, a fixed worldwide home ends decades of renegotiating the broadcast slot every few years — while placing the industry's biggest night on the same streaming platforms that now produce most of its winners.