YouTube has just pulled off an awards season coup. In another major blow to broadcast television, Google‘s free streaming giant has just struck a deal to become the exclusive home of the Oscars starting in 2029, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday. The deal runs through 2033 and will officially mark the end of ABC‘s historic decades-long reign as the home of film’s biggest night. For now, the broadcaster will continue to platform the award show through 2028, which will mark its 100th iteration.
The news is bound to rock the entertainment industry to its core, as the Oscars have long been a staple of broadcast programming. Although the show hasn’t remained exclusively with ABC, it has, for the entirety of its existence on television and much of its life on radio, remained with one of the legacy media giants. Aside from brief stints with NBC in its earlier years, the Academy Awards have called ABC home from 1975 onward, uninterrupted. Now, YouTube will not only broadcast the show directly to consumers for free, but also couple it with a significant slate of supplementary coverage as part of the new agreement. Even with the knowledge that YouTube was one of many interested parties after ABC‘s exclusive negotiating window lapsed earlier this year, it’s still a stunner to see them come out on top over the likes of CBS, Prime Video, Netflix, and more.
Included in YouTube‘s new Oscar programming plan is pre-show and behind-the-scenes in-show coverage, the Oscar nominations announcement, the Governor’s Awards, the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the Student Academy Awards ceremony, the Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony, exclusive Academy member and filmmaker interviews, and much more. The platform will now also be working hand-in-hand with the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures through the Google Arts & Culture initiative to help digitize some of the over 52 million items featured in the Academy Collection and offer digital access to certain exhibits and programs. Everyone, ultimately, appears to have come out of this deal with what they wanted. YouTube has made a statement to Hollywood, and the Academy has landed its ideal global streaming partner in the world’s largest online video sharing platform.
The Academy Awards Made Streaming a Priority With Its Latest Deal
This year marked just the first time the Oscars streamed online, with Disney making the show available directly on Hulu. Even with the shift, however, the Academy was cognizant that a switch to a platform with more global reach was likely the best outcome to grow the show going forward. Ratings have been back on the rise since the COVID-19 pandemic, topping out at 19.69 million this year, but they’re still far from the results the ceremony got back in its heyday. Compared to even Disney, YouTube and Netflix, especially, offered a far wider viewership with far fewer hoops to jump through to get the Oscars in as many markets as possible. The ability to access the show easily for free likely helped tip the balance in YouTube‘s favor.
“The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry,” Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, said in an official statement. “Partnering with the Academy to bring this celebration of art and entertainment to viewers all over the world will inspire a new generation of creativity and film lovers while staying true to the Oscars’ storied legacy.” It’s just the latest addition to the service’s growing empire that also features the NFL Sunday Ticket alongside its mountains of user-generated content. Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor also released their own statement addressing the deal, adding:
“We are thrilled to enter into a multifaceted global partnership with YouTube to be the future home of the Oscars and our year-round Academy programming. The Academy is an international organization, and this partnership will allow us to expand access to the work of the Academy to the largest worldwide audience possible — which will be beneficial for our Academy members and the film community. This collaboration will leverage YouTube’s vast reach and infuse the Oscars and other Academy programming with innovative opportunities for engagement while honoring our legacy. We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers and provide access to our film history on an unprecedented global scale.”
The new deal won’t send the Oscars to YouTube until 2029. Next year’s awards show will air on ABC on March 15 and feature the return of Conan O’Brien as host.
via Collider