Amazon made a deal with the Television Academy to give Prime Video the streaming rights to show the Emmys for the next six years freely. According to Deadline, it is worth $120 million in total, between $20 million to $25 million per year with the value at $24 million per year from a source.
The broadcast networks have paid between $8 million to $10 million per year to air the Academy on international markets and other smaller services and networks. The networks included CTV in Canada, Showcase in Australia, Canal+ in France, TNT across Latin America and Sky Italia. It is unclear though of how much revenue is given to the Academy from international broadcasters, not including the U.S.
Mike Hopkins, who is head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, says to Deadline that they were bringing increase viewership through younger audiences and innovate production to a global growth. Both Amazon and the TV Academy found that the younger viewers appeal the most to different stories and artists by streaming instead of broadcast television. Television Academy Chair, who was Former Chairman of Banijay Americas, Cris Abrego says that having the show be free for viewers to watch without a paywall is a “non-negotiable” for the Academy.
Amazon, as the biggest ad business for streaming, has placed many Amazon Fire concerts and its Black Friday NFL game on the paywall with other events to follow. The company has hardly worked well over the past years in the Emmys. It has won 10 wins this year for Spider-Noir (2026), five awards last year at the Creative Arts Emmys, and four award back in 2024.
Hopkins says: “We have a variety of other economic levers we can pull to make it make financial sense for us. We also have nearly all of the streaming services as part of Prime Video in our subscription business, and many of this year’s winners are available to our Prime Video customers via driving to HBO Max or Apple TV. We see it as something that sits as part of our entertainment system with customers where we can celebrate these awards and nominees throughout the year. We can be the home of many of the best shows on television today, not just those that we make ourselves, but our partners are the ones that are always every year going to get the lion’s share of awards.”
Abrego adds that the renew of the deal would change new partnership as the industry becomes more evolved over the years but his goal for the deal is to have its own home.