The Oscars to make the move to Youtube starting in 2029

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced on Wednesday that, starting in 2029, the Oscars will be exclusively available on YouTube.

Hollywood’s most famous awards show will be available solely on streaming for the first time, thanks to a new multi-year agreement that ends a decades-long partnership with US broadcaster ABC.

About 20 million Americans and millions more around the world usually watch the Academy Awards, which honour the best films of the year and bring the biggest A-list stars in the world to a Hollywood theatre.

In a statement, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said: “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.”

With the 100th Academy Awards in 2028, ABC’s most recent contract to air the series was set to expire.

Up until then, the Oscars will be broadcast on the Disney-owned channel.

However, the new agreement with Google-owned YouTube signifies a drastically different course for the program and an industry that has long been concerned about how streamers may affect cinema.

Due to the shifting watching preferences of younger generations, Hollywood has experienced a shift.

19.69 million people watched the most recent Oscars, which was increased by the fact that it was shown live for the first time on both ABC and Disney’s streaming service Hulu.

Despite technical issues that prevented some viewers from seeing the final awards on the Hulu stream, Disney claimed that the program was the most-watched Oscars in five years.

As low as 10.4 million people watched the Oscars during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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