- The Academy and YouTube ink Oscars deal
- The 101st Academy Awards will be streamed on YouTube
- The event has been shown on ABC for almost 50 years
And Oscar goes to…YouTube. Google’s streaming video giant has just secured the Oscars in 2029 and the surrounding events on the red carpet. The telecast will leave Disney-owned ABC, its home since 1976.
It’s a big moment for streaming TV and perhaps an unfortunate sign of the times of linear, a.k.a. broadcast television. This year alone, streaming surpassed the combined viewership of broadcast and cable (the split is 44.1% for the pair and 44.8% for streaming), according to Nielsen.
Live events like the Oscars and sports have been one of the ways linear TV still wins, but streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Apple and others have partnered with major sports leagues to bring the live games to their platforms (Apple has MLB and MLS, Amazon Prime has some NFL games). Award shows, however, had stuck to broadcast and cable — until now. In recent years, Disney has also streamed the Oscars on Disney+ and Hulu.
According to a release from the Academy, which hosts and runs the Academy Awards and the show, YouTube will begin hosting the show in 2029 with the 101st Oscars and continue to do so through 2033.
“We are thrilled to enter into a multi-faceted global partnership with YouTube to become the future home of the Academy Awards and our year-round Academy programming,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in the release.
Programming will include the annual announcement of nominees, red carpet, Governors Ball and other behind-the-scenes content.
Perhaps more importantly for Oscar fans, the Oscar show will stream live and free on YouTube, as well as for YouTube TV subscribers.
Opening that envelope
After years of declining ratings, ABC and the Academy made some adjustments to the program in 2024, including moving the show’s start time up to an earlier hour, resulting in its largest audience since 2020.
According to Nielsen, 19.5 million viewers sounds like a lot, but YouTube has 2.7 billion monthly active users. In other words, the potential for reach may be far greater than the Oscars’ seemingly shrinking linear television options. But the move to YouTube is likely to change viewing habits and cause some confusion among longtime Oscars fans who may not realize they need, say, a smart TV and running the YouTube app to watch the 2029 event.
Of course, this may not mean much for e.g. Gen Z, who rarely watch TV, are just as happy to consume programs on their smartphones or tablets.
What happens when the deal ends, Google and the Academy may resume, or Disney may come back with a sweeter streaming deal on Disney+. Similarly, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV can see an opening.
The point is, all bets are off on the future of the iconic show, and linear TV may never be the same again.
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