The Oscars Partner With YouTube to Broadcast Awards Ceremony (But There’s a Major Catch)

Oscar Sunday is billed as Hollywood’s biggest night, celebrating all of the cinematic accomplishments of the past year. But unlike Super Bowl Sunday, the Oscars have struggled with ratings in recent years. Viewership has been on the uptick over the past few years, but the figures are still a far cry from what they were decades ago. The 2025 Oscars ceremony drew 19.69 million viewers. In contrast, the 2015 event saw 37.2 million viewers, while the 2005 ceremony drew an audience of 42.1 million. Some of this can be attributed to the general audience appeal of the Best Picture nominees, but that’s not the sole reason why ratings have declined so much (the 2024 Oscars, the year of Barbenheimer, drew 19.49 million viewers). In an effort to switch things up, the Academy has made a major change and is fully embracing the streaming era.

Today, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences reached an agreement with YouTube that makes the platform the official new home of the Oscars ceremony. The catch is that the first YouTube broadcast won’t be until 2029, when the 101st Oscars take place. For the next few years, ABC will continue to show the Oscars. The Academy’s deal with YouTube means the ceremony will be “available live and for free to over 2 billion viewers.” Cinephiles will also be able to watch special events like the Oscar nominations announcement and the Scientific and Technical Awards on the Academy’s YouTube channel.

Will the YouTube Deal Help the Oscars Reach a Larger Audience?

By ending its partnership with a linear TV network, it’s clear the Academy is hoping this new deal helps the Oscar ceremony reach a larger audience. In the age of streaming, many people have cut the cord, moving away from cable and other TV providers. It makes sense to work with a platform like YouTube moving forward, evolving with the times. Those interested in watching won’t even have to pay for a streaming service or a YouTube TV subscription. They can just watch it for free on YouTube, instantly making the ceremony broadcast more accessible to movie fans all around the globe.

Whether or not this leads to a sizable increase in viewership remains to be seen. Moviegoing habits have changed so much since the turn of the century; many films that wind up in the Best Picture race are not major box office hits. For example, this year’s perceived frontrunner, One Battle After Another, was projected to lose $100 million after its theatrical run. That said, streaming has allowed box office bombs to find larger audiences at home; shorter theatrical windows make it easier for people to wait a handful of weeks and catch something on PVOD or one of the many services they’re subscribed to. If people can stream One Battle After Another or Hamnet and then watch the Oscars for free on YouTube, they could be inclined to tune in and see who wins.

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There’s also a case to be made that the Oscars will never be able to reach the high viewership numbers it saw in decades past. It’s just too different of an era right now. While there’s always the possibility to see something wildly unexpected (think the La La Land/Moonlight Best Picture snafu), there arguably isn’t as much incentive to watch the full ceremony live as there was before. Thanks to social media, people can find out the winners just by scrolling through a feed, and the acceptance speeches are uploaded to YouTube after the ceremony. Die-hard cinephiles will still consider the Oscars appointment viewing, but regardless of the platform, a three-hour ceremony is a tough sell for casual audiences when they’re only interested in a handful of prominent categories.

Still, the Academy deserves credit for trying something new, and this YouTube deal could pay off handsomely. Not only does it make the ceremony more accessible to more people, it’ll also be great to see special events like the Governors Awards, the Student Academy Awards, and the Scientific and Technical Awards receive a larger spotlight, highlighting those honorees for a wider audience. Instead of seeing edited clips from those events during the main ceremony, fans can watch these in full and have a greater appreciation for different areas of filmmaking. Hopefully, the Academy/YouTube partnership works out well.

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