Woah, some major news. YouTube has officially acquired the Oscars. It’ll start airing them in 2029 — maybe Mr. Beast can host them now.
NBCUniversal and YouTube were the frontrunners for the next Academy Awards broadcast deal, but the latter won out in a huge deal, rumored to be for $150M+ per year that’s set to expire in 2033.
The Oscars will stream live and free on YouTube for more than 2 billion viewers worldwide, including full red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes access, Governors Ball events, and more. U.S. viewers can also watch via YouTube TV. To reach the Academy’s expanding global audience, YouTube will offer closed captions and audio tracks in multiple languages, ensuring fans everywhere can experience the show in real time.
ABC has held the Oscars for nearly 50 years and is officially relinquishing the rights when its current contract expires in 2028. Last year, Disney/ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) were negotiating a deal reportedly worth over $100M per year, but discussions suddenly stalled.
ABC has long been the Oscars’ broadcast partner and currently holds rights through 2028, which would mark the network’s 50th telecast of the ceremony, culminating in the milestone 100th Oscars. YouTube winning the rights is sending shockwaves throughout Hollywood, but maybe the good kind…
It’s not as far-fetched as it may seem. YouTube is the world’s most-watched video platform, and since the Academy is aiming to chase eyeballs and regain cultural relevance, the platform could deliver a global audience that no traditional broadcaster could match. This isn’t anything like, say, Warner Bros being acquired by Netflix. It’s actually beneficial for the Academy, and really, moviegoers at large.
Fact remains that U.S. viewership for the Oscars has collapsed more than 60% since its peak in the late 1990s and is half of what it was just a decade ago. Many viewers now skip the live broadcast entirely, opting instead to watch highlights online the following day.
Ratings for this past March’s Oscars ceremony were down by about 7% from last year. Around 18.1M people tuned in to the telecast. Isn’t it amazing how in 2014, just a little over ten years ago, ratings reached an impressive 44M viewers? When compared to this year’s telecast, that’s a loss of 26 million set of eyeballs. It’s an astounding drop in relevance.
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