Amazon In Talks To Take Over Emmys TV Deal

The Emmys is set to leave broadcast television for the first time in its history after it emerged that Amazon was in talks to strike a rights deal with the TV Academy.

Deadline has confirmed that the streamer is in talks with the organization behind the annual television ceremony after the broadcast wheel, which sees each of the broadcast network air it once every four years, ended this year.

The deal, which would begin next year, would mark a major step change for the Television Academy, which has been long searching for a rights deal.

It comes as the Oscars struck a deal with YouTube, taking over from Disney, and a number of other awards ceremonies have been moving to streaming such as the Actors Awards (formerly known as the SAG Awards) and the Academy of Country Music Awards.

The Academy, led by chairman Cris Abrego, who is also boss of Land of Women producer Hyphenate Media Group, has held discussions with a number of broadcast networks and streamers about the rights over the last few months.

At one point, there was the suggestion that a simulcast approach could work, but that didn’t materialize.

Not all of the broadcast networks felt the same about keeping airing the Emmys, particularly given that the number of awards that they win continues to dwindle, although Amazon only nabbed five awards across the three nights this year as well, largely for its Spider-Noir series.

The wheel approach began in 1995 with Jason Alexander and Cybill Shepherd hosting the ceremony, which aired on Fox with ABC, CBS and NBC airing subsequent years. However, this came after the TV Academy ended a four-year deal with ABC (following six years on Fox) early when rivals vowed to boycott the ceremony. It made sense at the time given that the Emmys regularly attracted more than 20M viewers, before ratings dwindled to single digits starting in 2019.