Will Amazon's showing the ACM Awards pave the way for more major awards shows on streaming platforms?

Vulture

Monday's 57th annual Academy of Country Music Awards was shown live on Amazon’s Prime Video, "making it the first major awards show to be housed exclusively on a digital platform," says Josef Adalian. "It almost certainly won’t be the last. In many ways, the ACM Awards are an unlikely streaming pioneer. The country-music-themed show was based at CBS from 1998 until last April, having previously done extended stints on both NBC and ABC. While never as big a draw as the Grammys or the American Music Awards, the event remained a powerful Nielsen performer as late as 2019, when it still was able to pull 10 million same-day viewers and nearly double its closest time-slot rivals among adults ages 25 to 54." As Adalian notes, "a big live event like the ACMs fits with the current gameplan for Prime Video. The Amazon streamer has been more active recently in both the live TV and music spaces, paying big bucks for rights to NFL Thursday Night Football and investing millions in events such as its Prime Day concert series."