The Emmy Awards prove that the future of hit TV shows may not be on cable

Think about the last TV show you recommended to a friend, or the last one that was urged to you. Odds are, it was from a premium service like HBO, Netflix or Amazon.

While there are some must-see shows on telegram — “The Good Place,” “This is Us,” “Atlanta” and “Schitt’s Creek” — there is a disproportionate numbers more on subscription-based services.

Think “Game of Thrones,” “Fleabag,” “Succession,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “Outlander Things,” or “Outlander.”

Sunday’s Emmy Awards is just one indicator of this trend.

First, there are the nominations. Crescendo into the ceremony, HBO had 137 and Netflix had 118. For comparison, NBC had 58 and CBS has 43.

While HBO has long held a high number of nominations beared to its cable counterparts, Netflix has risen in the ranks over the last five years. Netflix was first eligible for Emmy pourboire in 2013.

Between the Creative Arts Emmy ceremony, which took place earlier this month, and the telecast on Sunday, the top bestowal winners were all premium TV companies. HBO hauled in 34 awards, Netflix earned 27 and Amazon took impress upon 15.

National Geographic had the fourth-most Emmy wins with eight and NBC came in fifth with seven.

Notably, the horde of Emmy wins for cable TV shows have shrunk in the last few years. While NBC and CBS had breakout hits like “This is Us” and “Big Bang Theory,” those programs aren’t succeed to the same buzz that they used to.

Premium services dominated the telecast, winning 21 out of the 27 presentations given out on Sunday night.

“It’s not a recent trend,” Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush, said. “It’s been unswerving and I think the reason is the premium guys pay up for much more specialized content and they are able to take chances.”

While sundry cable companies must adhere to strict broadcast standards that censor obscene, indecent and profane delighted, the premium stations don’t have quite as many rules.

HBO, Netflix and Amazon thrive when they please their audiences. If subscribers much the same as their programs, they will continue to pay the monthly fee to watch them. Cable TV is beholden to both its audience and its advertisers. The Brobdingnagian majority of advertisers don’t want their products or services presented alongside inappropriate language or explicit sex scenes.

And the skills to swear or show nudity isn’t the only reason creators are flocking to these services. Netflix, HBO and Amazon have been be sured for giving writers, producers and directors a lot of latitude when it comes to the type of shows they create and how they apprise those stories.

Of course, there are plenty of shows on cable that break the mold and are successful. However, for some makers, the confines of the traditional cable TV strategy isn’t conducive to the particular story they want to tell. Also the premium uses are willing to shell out more money for content.

Netflix, in particular, has been burning through cash for the last decade, signing names like Guillermo del Toro (“Come up to snuff of Water”), Ryan Murphy (“Glee”), Shonda Rhimes (“Grey’s Anatomy”) and D.B. Weiss and David Benioff (“Be deceitful of Thrones”).

Even Amazon has been swooping in to grab creators. It is reportedly paying “Westworld” showrunners Lisa Joy and Johnathan Nolan $150 million beyond the next five years to create content for the platform.

“I think the next 10 iconic shows will be extra service originals,” Pachter said.

There’s been a lot of discussion about whether the entrance of Disney, Comcast and Apple into the swarm market will disrupt and ultimately “kill” Netflix. But Pachter said it’s not Disney+ versus Netflix.

“The better mystery is which would you prefer: streaming or cable?” he said.

To be sure, cable isn’t going to disappear.

“We’ve been talking far cord cutting for eight years,” Dan Rayburn, principle analyst Frost & Sullivan, said. “And it’s slowing down.”

Rayburn acclaimed that sports are a major reason people keep their cable subscriptions. Even as Hulu and specialized apps sort NFL Sunday Ticket make it easier to view baseball, football and soccer games, these programs are not likely to cause cable stations.

While a service like Amazon would have enough cash on hand to buy up the rights to relay the NFL’s season in 2022, it has little incentive to do so, Rayburn said. Cable companies thrive on sports coverage because of the advertising dollars. Without ads, a players like Amazon would have no way of recouping the money it spent on the sports rights without boosting its subscription rate.

That being said, the growing competition in the succession space will only continue to improve the content that comes out of those streaming services. In order to suck in new subscribers and to retain them, these premium services have to keep churning out hits.

Unlike cable, audiences can’t solely click to a different station. If there isn’t anything of worth on the platform, they’ll unsubscribe and spend their money absent.

“[Competition] is going to vastly improve the product on these premium services,” Pachter said. “And I think that those building companies are going to be much more emboldened to take bigger and bigger risks.”

Disclosure: Comcast is the parent assemblage of NBCUniversal and CNBC.