• by Adam Buckman , Featured Columnist, November 1, 2024

Disney’s seizing of the Grammy Awards away from CBS is significant not only because it is big news in its own right, but also for what it says about the pecking order in the marketplace of Big Media.

Disney made the announcement on Wednesday. The company made a 10-year-deal with the Recording Academy to be the new home of the Grammy Awards starting in 2027 and ending in 2036.

The deal allows Disney to simulcast the annual awards show on ABC, Hulu and Disney+. In addition, the Academy, will produce “Grammy-branded music specials and additional new programming,” the details of which were not provided.

Disney’s press release made no mention of the deal’s price, but The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that the cost to Disney is “more than $500 million.”

In capturing the Grammys, Disney adds to a portfolio of live events that are increasingly seen as important for both linear television and streaming.

Other live-event Disney properties cited in its press release were the Oscars, the CMA Awards and “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.” 

The company also noted that it has Super Bowl LXI in 2027, the first year it will have the Grammys too. The two events are held relatively close to each other every winter.

“Live events have never been more important to our culture and industry, and we just acquired one of the crown jewels,” said Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Dana Walden.

So why is this such big news? For openers, the deal grabs the Grammy Awards away from a network, CBS, that has been the home of the Grammys for 52 years (plus two more in 2025 and 2026).

It should go without saying, but the Grammys were evidently important to CBS. 

Other awards shows, such as the Emmys, for example, have seen their ratings decline for a number of years into the single-digit millions (although it should be noted that the Emmy audience actually grew some last September to 6.9 million from 4.46 million last January).

By contrast, the Grammys have been on an upswing. Last February, the show had a “live” total audience of 16.9 million, up markedly from 12.55 million in February 2023.

While the Oscars’ U.S. audience is far smaller than it once was decades ago, it is still TV’s highest-rated awards show. Last March, the audience was 19.5 million on ABC, up a bit from 2023 (18.7 million).

Thus, Disney now has the two best awards shows. CBS still has the Tonys, the Golden Globes and the American Music Awards. 

The WSJ reported that CBS was “unable to reach a new deal during its exclusive negotiating period.”

The paper did not say why, but it is always about money, right? But related to that, it might also be the relative positions of the two competing companies -- Disney and CBS owner Paramount Global.

Disney appears to be in a period of stability. Paramount does not. The company is in a period of belt-tightening as it prepares for a takeover by Skydance Media. 

As a result, it has less clout in the marketplace even when trying to make a deal with a partner of more than half a century. Now that partner has dumped CBS for a new partner.

The Grammy story represents the second time this year when a long-time rights holder watched a long-time partner takes its partnership elsewhere to a new partner with deeper pockets. 

The loser was Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT, which was out-negotiated for NBA rights last June and came away with no NBA rights for the first time since 1989. The NBA was a mainstay for TNT.

The big winner was Amazon, which negotiated a huge NBA package that makes Prime Video a major player in NBA television rights for the first time. 

Disney/ESPN was able to renew its NBA package, and NBC joined the fray with a package of its own.

Published reports at the time said WBD “matched” at least part of Amazon’s offer, but the NBA declined WBD in favor of Amazon.

One might conclude that the whole thing came down to who has deeper pockets, Amazon or WBD. So much for the sanctity of long-time “partnerships.”

Above photo: Grammy winner Billie Eilish at last winter’s Grammy Awards on CBS. Photo courtesy of CBS.