Amazon Prime Video has secured exclusive global streaming rights to the Emmy Awards in a six-year deal that will take the ceremony off traditional US broadcast television for the first time.

Beginning in 2027, the Emmys will stream live worldwide on Prime Video each September, replacing the long-running arrangement that rotated the ceremony between ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC. Viewers will not need a Prime membership to watch, with Amazon making the broadcast available for free.

Financial terms of the deal have not been disclosed.

The agreement marks a major change for one of television’s biggest awards ceremonies and follows a broader shift of major live events towards streaming platforms. The Oscars are also heading online, with YouTube securing global rights to the ceremony from 2029.

Forrester research director Mike Proulx said the Emmys’ traditional broadcast arrangement had become increasingly disconnected from an industry now dominated by streaming services.

“The shows driving the industry forward largely originate on streaming platforms, yet the awards themselves were tethered to broadcast television,” Proulx said.

He added that moving the ceremony to a major streaming platform such as Prime Video was a logical next step.

Television Academy chair Cris Abrego said the Amazon deal would give the awards “unprecedented global reach”, with viewers across more than 200 countries able to watch live.

“Television has never been more global, and the Emmys should be a celebration that the world can share,” Abrego said.

Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios head Mike Hopkins described the agreement as an opportunity for Amazon to become the “global home” of the Emmys while making the ceremony widely accessible.

For Amazon, the deal adds a major entertainment event to a growing live programming portfolio that has so far been heavily focused on sport.

Prime Video already carries properties including the NFL’s Thursday Night Football, NBA games and UEFA Champions League football in selected markets. Amazon’s latest earnings also highlighted growing audiences for live sport, with its inaugural NBA season producing a peak audience of 6.5 million viewers for Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals.

The Emmys could give Amazon another large global live audience while expanding its advertising business and drawing viewers into the wider Prime Video ecosystem.

It also sets up an interesting split between two of the world’s biggest technology companies in the awards space. Amazon will have the Emmys from 2027, while Google-owned YouTube takes over global streaming rights to the Oscars from 2029.

For the Emmys, the switch ends an era stretching back more than 70 years. The ceremony has rotated between the major US broadcast networks since 1955 and has never previously abandoned traditional television entirely.

First held in 1949, the Emmys recognise achievements in television across categories including acting, writing and production. From 2027, television’s biggest awards will fittingly have a streaming-first home.