In another move that adds to the argument of YouTube’s growing prowess over traditional linear television as a powerful audience-driving force in the living room, the Alphabet-owned streaming company this week poached one of TV’s most well-known non-sports live events, the Oscars.
A new five-year deal between the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) and YouTube will see the Academy Awards (aka “Oscars”) shift from ABC, their exclusive broadcast TV home since 1976, to free ad-supported YouTube globally and YouTube TV in the U.S.
Monetary terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. But it has been widely reported that YouTube will pony up less than the $100 million annual rights fee Disney’s ABC is currently paying, but it will deliver more in the way of services and benefits to AMPAS.
Not only will YouTube help the org develop year-around programming on its YouTube channel, it will offer AMPAS greater control over sponsorship sales and help the Academy digitize more than 52 million film-related items.
“We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers and provide access to our film history,” Bill Kramer, the chief executive of the academy, and Lynette Howell Taylor, the organization’s president, said in a statement.
Another influencing factor: YouTube’s global reach of more than 2.5 billion monthly active users across more than 100 countries.
“This partnership will allow us to expand access to the work of the academy to the largest worldwide audience possible,” Kramer and Taylor added.
Notably, AMPAS’ new deal with YouTube was announced on the same day that Nielsen released its monthly audience-share figures for November. Nielsen’s latest report showed YouTube capturing 12.9% of all U.S. TV consumption for the month.
As for the Oscars, they delivered their peak audience back in 1998, the year James Cameron and Titanic won Best Picture. The bottom fell out in 2021, with the pandemic cancelling the theatrical distribution of most movies — the event only averaged 10.4 million viewers on ABC.
But the Oscars had been clawing its audience back — the 96th Academy Awards were the second most watched non-sports live event in 2024, usurped only by the September presidential debate pitting Kamala Harris against Donald Trump. And the event averaged 19.7 million viewers back in March of this year.
The Oscars aren’t the first Hollywood awards show to shift to streaming — the SAG Awards moved to Netflix in 2024.
And the Academy Awards model might benefit from streaming vs. broadcast television, which is constrained by run time and the need to pack the event with commercials. Ad loads on ABC have increased steadily to offset falling ratings in recent years. ABC executives had pushed for years to shorten the awards curriculum to 24 to reduce the run time of the show, a move AMPAS staunchly resisted.
As summed up by YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, “Partnering with The Academy will inspire a new generation of creativity and film lovers while staying true to the Oscars’ storied legacy.”