With Record Live-Stream Numbers for the Grammys, Case Grows to Move Award Shows to Streaming

Sunday night, the 65th Annual Grammy Awards celebrated several record-breaking moments, and Beyoncé wasn’t the only one shattering records. With 12.4 million viewers, the Grammys ceremony on CBS was the most-watched program on Sunday night; the number is up more than 30% from last year and represents the biggest audience the award show has seen since 2020.

This certainly looks like a victory for those putting on the awards show, but perhaps the most telling statistic from music’s biggest night was the fact that the ceremony had its largest live-stream audience in history, up 33% from last year with viewers tuning in on Paramount+ and various other CBS platforms. The Grammys are the latest award show to attract large and growing streaming numbers, further making a case for streamers who are curious about moving major live events to their platforms.

Just a few weeks prior to the Grammys, The Golden Globes also benefited from increasing streaming numbers. The Globes might have had its smallest audience on NBC ever in 2023, but one optimistic set of numbers was how well the awards show did on Peacock. The show saw 793,000 video starts on the streaming platform, which helped bring a larger viewership to the award ceremony’s disappointing numbers. This increase in viewers on Peacock after an otherwise poor showing on linear further makes a case that perhaps streaming platforms are becoming the best-suited platform for award shows moving forward.

Netflix and Disney+ have also jumped on the award show train. Netflix recently reached a deal with the Screen Actors Guild to become the home of the SAG Awards starting next year. Disney+, on the other hand, live-streamed the Academy Award nomination announcements for the second year in a row. While Disney’s broadcast network ABC is the longtime home of the Oscars, with Disney+’s further movement towards live events, some are wondering if Disney+ will begin streaming the Oscar ceremony as well in the near future as well.

While it doesn’t seem likely this year, it would not be too surprising if it happens in the years to come, especially if the streaming numbers for awards shows continue to grow at the expense of traditional linear ratings. While broadcast and cable make logical sense for appointment viewing like awards shows, the audiences for these events are clearly shrinking from wide cross-sections of the population to more niche groups of people deeply invested in the outcomes. These dedicated groups will likely follow the ceremonies to whichever platforms they land on, and being more plugged into their respective entertainment industries, more likely to be comfortable watching the awards shows on streaming services.