The Emmy Awards are set to find a new home on Amazon Prime Video in 2027, while the Oscars are scheduled to leave ABC for YouTube two years later. Taken together, the agreements put two of Hollywood’s most established televised ceremonies on digital platforms and intensify the competition for one of entertainment’s most durable forms of live programming.
The changes do not mean broadcast television has surrendered awards shows altogether. ABC is due to begin a 10-year agreement for the Grammy Awards in 2027, with streaming availability on Disney+ and Hulu. But the planned moves for the Emmys and Oscars show how rights holders are weighing worldwide distribution, platform identity and the declining certainty of the old network-TV model.
What the Emmys and Oscars deals change
According to a Los Angeles Times report published Oct. 12, the Television Academy reached a six-year agreement making Prime Video the Emmys’ home beginning in 2027. The report says the telecast will be available without a Prime Video subscription and will stream in more than 200 countries. That access model is notable: Amazon gets an event closely tied to prestige television without restricting the ceremony to paying members.
The Oscars’ transition is further away but more sweeping in its stated rights scope. A Yahoo-hosted CNN report on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ agreement says YouTube will hold exclusive global rights starting in 2029, with the arrangement running through 2033. ABC is scheduled to retain the Oscars through the 2028 ceremony.
Both events have long been identified with U.S. broadcast-network television: the Emmys through a rotating arrangement among major networks and the Oscars through ABC. Their new homes promise global digital distribution, though the available reporting does not establish that the platforms will use identical production, advertising or viewing-access strategies.
There is also an important difference between the two arrangements. The Emmys deal, as reported, preserves no-subscription access on Prime Video. The Oscars agreement is described as exclusive global YouTube rights, but the public reporting cited here does not spell out every detail of how YouTube will present the ceremony in each market or what related programming may be included.
A transition already underway
Awards shows have been testing streaming distribution for several years. The Academy of Country Music Awards began streaming on Prime Video in 2022. The Actor Awards tested a presentation on Netflix’s YouTube channel in 2023 before moving to Netflix in 2024, according to the Los Angeles Times. Those were meaningful precedents, but the Emmys and Oscars are bigger symbols of the traditional TV awards calendar.
The sequence also undercuts any simple claim that award shows are universally fleeing broadcast television. The Recording Academy’s upcoming ABC agreement gives the network the Grammy Awards beginning in 2027, alongside Disney+ and Hulu streaming. Rather than one uniform migration, the deals point to a fragmented market: some organizations are prioritizing broad, global platform reach, while others still see value in the promotional and advertising infrastructure of a major broadcast network paired with streaming outlets.
The audience challenge predates these specific contracts. A 2021 examination of awards-show ratings documented sharp pandemic-era viewing declines and the growing competition from on-demand entertainment and social media. That context helps explain why live ceremonies have become less straightforward network propositions, though it cannot by itself account for the terms or motivations behind the current rights agreements.
Prestige, scale and the undisclosed economics
For platforms, an awards telecast offers a rare appointment-viewing event in an era when most library programming can be watched at any time. Prime Video has increasingly used live sports and event programming to bring audiences to its service; the Emmys would add a major entertainment-industry showcase with direct connections to the television shows and talent that compete for viewers across platforms.
Brandon Katz, director of insights and content strategy at Greenlight Analytics, told the Los Angeles Times that the Emmys could reinforce Prime Video’s association with premium television even without the mass audience once expected of the largest broadcast events. Television Academy Chairman Cris Abrego, in remarks reported by the paper, emphasized the global nature of television and the opportunity to share the Emmys internationally.
The Academy’s reasoning for the YouTube agreement has similarly been framed around access. Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in the CNN report that the partnership would extend Academy programming to the broadest possible worldwide audience. YouTube’s scale makes that goal plausible, but global availability is not the same thing as a disclosed forecast for live viewership, advertising revenue or awards-season influence.
Financial details remain incomplete. The Los Angeles Times reported that Amazon will pay $15 million annually under the six-year Emmys agreement, but no public deal documents were identified in the report. The paper also reported that Disney did not want to exceed $100 million annually to keep the Oscars. That figure describes a reported negotiating threshold for Disney, not the price YouTube agreed to pay. The CNN report says the financial terms of the YouTube pact were not disclosed.
That distinction is consequential as the industry assesses whether these are cost-saving exits by broadcasters, prestige purchases by technology companies or a blend of both. Former CBS entertainment president Kelly Kahl told the Los Angeles Times that falling ratings and stubbornly high costs have weakened the traditional network equation. It is a persuasive industry reading, but not a complete public accounting from all parties to the deals.
The practical timeline is clear: Prime Video is expected to begin with the 2027 Emmys, ABC will begin its Grammy run that same year, and YouTube is expected to take over the Oscars in 2029 after ABC’s final scheduled ceremony in 2028. By then, Hollywood’s awards season will no longer have a single default television address.
