Delayed Emmy Awards on Rialto

For the second year in a row, TV fans will need a Sky subscription to watch the Emmys Awards — and they won’t even be live.

Rialto Channel (Sky channel 39) is screening the ceremony from 6.30 tonight, roughly an hour or so after it wraps up in Los Angeles (red carpet coverage will roll out from 5.30).

To view, you’ll need to be both a Sky customer and a subscriber to Rialto Channel.

So given effectively it’s behind a double-pay wall, why can’t those who fork out watch it live?

“A live feed is certainly possible, but given the timeframe and logistics, it wasn’t the preferred route,” Rialto’s CEO Roger Wyllie told ScreenScribe.

“We’ve done a survey and found that the majority of our audience prefers to watch the full show in primetime, commercial-free, and would not watch it at midday.

“A live feed at that time would have reached only a very small portion of subscribers.”

Twenty-four hours after the delayed broadcast on Rialto, the ceremony can be viewed for up to three months on Sky Go (if you have a Rialto sub).

It can’t be seen on other platforms because “rights and territories are restricted via the Academy, due to legacy licensing and cost,” Wyllie says.

That extends to Prime Video, which offers subscribers a Rialto-lite subscription.

“The Emmys won’t appear during the first window, due to restrictions and holdbacks of the SVOD [subscription video on demand] rights,” Wyllie says.

“Sky Go is what they call a catch-up right, which normally travels with the pay window.”

Here’s The Hollywood Reporter’s guide to who should win, who will win while Reader’s Digest has 16 Surprising Emmy Award Facts You’ve Never Heard Before.

Here’s the full list of nominees for the 77th Primetime Emmy Awards.