Prime Video Wins Exclusive Emmy Rights, Ending the Awards’ Broadcast-Network Rotation

The Emmy Awards will leave traditional broadcast television after more than seven decades and move exclusively to Amazon’s Prime Video under a six-year agreement beginning with the 2027 ceremony. Announced October 6 by Prime Video and the Television Academy, the deal replaces the awards’ long-running rotation among ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC with one global streaming home.

Prime Video will carry the ceremony live in September to viewers in more than 240 countries and territories. Importantly for viewers accustomed to receiving the Emmys over the air, Amazon will make the program available free, without requiring an Amazon Prime or standalone Prime Video subscription. The 2026 telecast on NBC concluded the broadcast networks’ latest “Wheel Deal,” which had moved production and distribution responsibilities to a different network each year.

The shift gives the Television Academy continuity it could not obtain from the annual rotation. Television Academy Chair Cris Abrego said working with one partner for six years will allow the organization and Prime Video to learn from each ceremony and build the event from year to year. Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins said Amazon intends to make the Emmys a global event celebrating television stars worldwide.

Amazon’s rights extend beyond carrying one annual program. Prime Video said it will use its services and audience reach to create additional opportunities for viewers to discover and engage with Emmy-recognized television throughout the year. The arrangement therefore gives Amazon both a live-event franchise and a promotional platform connecting awards coverage, nominated programs and television discovery.

For ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC, the agreement ends a distribution structure that had kept the principal Emmy ceremony on a national broadcast network every year since NBC first carried it nationally in 1955. For the Television Academy, the move exchanges that rotating U.S. broadcast presence for consistent worldwide streaming distribution.

ConsumerEXP analysis: The deal shows that streaming competition is increasingly about more than acquiring series and movies. Prime Video secured exclusive rights, a recurring live event and continuing audience-engagement opportunities, while the Television Academy preserved free access and substantially expanded the ceremony’s international availability. The Emmys’ departure also gives broadcasters another concrete example of marquee television programming migrating to technology-operated platforms.