- The Academy and YouTube sign an agreement for the Oscars
- The 101st Academy Awards will be broadcast on YouTube
- The event was broadcast on ABC for almost 50 years.
And the Oscar goes to… YouTube. Google’s streaming video giant just won the 2029 Oscars and the red carpet events surrounding it. The series is leaving Disney-owned ABC, which has been around since 1976.
This is a good moment for streaming TV and perhaps an unfortunate sign of the times for linear TV, i.e. broadcast TV. Only this year, Streaming has surpassed the combined audience of broadcast and cable TV (According to Nielsen, the split is 44.1% for pairs and 44.8% for streaming.)
Live events like the Oscars and sporting events are part of linear TV’s success, but streamers like Netflix, Amazon, Apple and others partner with major sports leagues to stream live games on their platforms (Apple offers MLB and MLS, Amazon Prime offers NFL games). Until now, however, awards ceremonies had replaced broadcast and cable television. In recent years, Disney has also streamed the Oscars on Disney+ and Hulu.
After to a publication From the Academy, which organizes and manages the Academy Awards and the program, YouTube will present the program with the 101st Academy Awards from 2029 and will continue to do so until 2033.
“We are excited to enter into a global and diverse partnership with YouTube to become the future home of the Academy Awards and our year-round Academy programming,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor in the press release.
The schedule includes the annual candidate announcement, red carpet, Governors Ball and other behind-the-scenes content.
Perhaps most importantly for Oscars fans, the Oscars series will be streamed live and free on YouTube and for YouTube TV subscribers.
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open the envelope
After years of declining ratings, ABC and the Academy made some changes to the 2024 schedule, including moving the show’s start time to an earlier time, resulting in the largest audience since 2020.
19.5 million viewers seems like a lot according to Nielsen, but YouTube has it 2.7 billion monthly active users. In other words, the potential reach could be far greater than the Oscars’ seemingly slim chances on linear television. But the move to YouTube is likely to change viewing habits and cause confusion among longtime Oscars fans who may not realize, for example, that they will need a smart TV and the use of the YouTube app to watch the event in 2029.
Of course, this should not play a major role, for example for generation Z. rarely watch TV shows and also likes to watch programs on their smartphone or tablet.
What would happen if the deal fell through, if Google and the academy got back together, or if Disney could come back with a cheaper streaming deal on Disney+? Netflix, Amazon Prime Video or Apple TV could also see an opening.
In fact, all bets on the future of the iconic series are off and linear television may never be the same again.
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