The Academy of Country Music Awards became the largest award show to move to a streaming platform, leaving brands with rapidly declining options for content to advertise in that reaches a large swath of live TV audiences.

The ACM Awards will move to Amazon Prime Video in 2022, after award show’s producer, Dick Clark Productions, failed to reach an agreement with long-time broadcaster CBS, which has televised the event since the late 1990s.

While terms of the deal and many specifics about the 2022 ceremony were not disclosed, if housed exclusively on Amazon Prime Video, it would become the first-ever major award show to ditch linear TV in favor of a subscription video-on-demand service. Amazon also owns ad-supported streamer IMDb TV and could very well offer the ACMs via that platform as well. 

This could be a catalyst for more such tentpole events to move from broadcast to streaming.

Dick Clark Productions’ parent company MRC was said to have been asking $20 million a year for the rights to broadcast the award show, Variety reports.

The deal comes after award shows suffered a year of record-low viewership. This year’s Oscars, Golden Globes and Grammys—three of the largest awards telecasts in the entertainment industry—all recorded their lowest audience counts of all-time. Other tentpole events, such as the Super Bowl, also suffered from weakened ratings compared to previous years.

The Academy of Country Music Awards was no exception: The three-hour event on CBS this past spring drew its smallest audience ever, averaging just over 6 million total viewers, about one million less than in 2020. 

And these awards shows don't come cheap for advertisers: This year, for example, ABC was seeking about $2 million for 30-seconds of air time during the Oscars. 

But despite ratings errosion, live awards shows are one of the only differentiators for linear TV outside of news and sports (other categories which have also made moves to streaming), and one of the few places for advertisers to still find large audiences, all watching at the same time, and in an environment with commercials. 

There aren't many options left to replace awards shows, even if audiences pale in comparison to those even just a few years ago. 

“We all know the ratings have diminished on network TV and for properties like this, but it’s still going to give you the best opportunity to reach the most people. No matter what, it’s still the best place to reach the widest audience,” says David Campanelli, chief investment officer, Horizon Media. “There is a value in it, or we’ve seen a value in it, but it’s really the ability to scale audiences quickly. And you take TV and live events, they do that in a way streaming can’t.”

The biggest issue for advertisers is that most streamers, while eager for ad revenue, are really looking to drive subscribers, Campanelli says, adding "Amazon Prime is about driving subscriptions."

It's not yet clear if brands will be able to get in on the 2022 Academy of Country Music Awards on Amazon Prime Video, but Campanelli suggests that putting if Amazon looks to put it on the ad-supported platform, IMDb TV, it could be a promotional play to drive awareness to that service. 

Not to be confused with the Country Music Association Awards, which airs on ABC, the 55-year-old Academy of Country Music Awards is a good get for subscription-supported Prime Video, which has seemed increasingly interested in boosting its profile amid the ever-competitive “streaming wars.” In March, it secured another exclusive deal to stream the NFL’s "Thursday Night Football," signaling its desire to branch into live broadcasts. 

A date has not yet been set for the Academy of Country Music Awards, which have historically been held and broadcast in April.