The irony writes itself. Monday night, at the 78th Emmy Awards, every trophy but one went to a show streaming on Netflix, HBO Max or Apple TV. Now the ceremony itself might follow the winners off broadcast television.

The Television Academy is in talks to move the annual telecast to Amazon Prime Video, according to people familiar with the discussions, which would end the tradition of rotating the show across ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox. Variety reported Amazon's interest first. A TV Academy representative kept it vague: "We're having conversations and when we have something to announce we will do so."

If it happens, the Emmys become the second big awards show to jump to streaming inside a few years. The Oscars are already leaving ABC for YouTube starting 2029.

Why the networks want out

The Emmy ceremony isn't the ratings draw it used to be, especially with younger audiences who'd rather watch a two-minute clip of an acceptance speech on their phones than sit through the whole broadcast. Viewership has hovered around 8 million lately.

But the bigger issue for the broadcast networks is what the show has quietly become: a three-hour advertisement for their own streaming rivals. Netflix, HBO Max and Apple TV pour money into the kind of prestige television that wins Emmy votes, and the network stuck airing the ceremony ends up celebrating shows it didn't make and doesn't profit from. The only broadcast-network winner who actually walked onstage during NBC's telecast Monday was Stephen Colbert, for a CBS late-night show that's already been cancelled.

"It's a lot of effort and not a lot of return," one broadcast executive told the LA Times, speaking without authorisation to comment publicly.

What Amazon gets, and gives up

Handing the Emmys to a streamer behind a paywall would be a fairly loud statement that broadcast television has stopped mattering culturally, even as broadcast still gives the show its promotional muscle, morning-show plugs, affiliate specials, the works. That backing counts for less than it used to, but it's not nothing.

Netflix reportedly looked at bidding for the Emmys before but couldn't make the numbers work. The last rights deal was said to be worth around $8 million a year, modest by streaming standards. Netflix went for the SAG Awards instead, now rebranded The Actor Awards, which doesn't carry the same weight as an Emmy or an Oscar.

Amazon, meanwhile, has been the streamer most willing to chase live rights, mostly in sport, with Thursday Night Football and a chunk of NBA coverage already on Prime. It picked up the Academy of Country Music Awards back in 2022, so an entertainment awards show isn't new territory.

Nothing is signed yet. Whether the deal closes, and what it means for the Oscars-adjacent prestige of the Emmys once it sits behind a Prime subscription, is the next thing to watch.