Oscars Heading to YouTube Instead of TV… Global Streaming Starting 2029
Date
Dec 18, 2025
Classification
- Trends/Insights
•
Text by Dave Smith & Edited by Reporter Kim Da-rin quill@fortunekorea.co.kr
[Photo=Shutterstock] Source: Fortune Korea Digital News(https://www.fortunekorea.co.kr)
"TV is Dead": The Decisive Reason the 98-Year-Old Oscar Partnered with YouTube
🫑 3-Line Summary
•
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has decided to end its partnership with ABC, which has lasted for over half a century, and grant YouTube exclusive worldwide broadcasting rights for the Oscars for five years starting in 2029.
•
This is a survival strategy to secure global accessibility through YouTube, which has 2 billion active users, as the number of viewers plummeted from 55 million in 1998 to 19.7 million in 2025.
•
This is the first instance among the four major U.S. awards to completely leave terrestrial broadcasting, and it is a symbolic event demonstrating that media power has completely shifted from legacy broadcasters to digital streaming platforms.
🥦 Insight
•
To shed the 'clothes' of authority and choose the 'path' of survival.
•
The fact that the Oscars, Hollywood's most conservative festival, have chosen to move to YouTube carries significant implications. While many worry that this might lower the prestige of the Oscars, from a business perspective, this is an extremely cool-headed and rational pivot.
•
Are you perhaps holding onto a channel that customers have abandoned just to preserve your brand's 'prestige' or 'convention'? When Oscar's viewership (traffic) plummeted to one-third of its peak, it boldly abandoned the outdated authority of TV and moved its stage to where its customers (the younger generation) were.
•
"Where the customers are is the main stage." No matter how excellent a product or service is, if it cannot reach its audience, it is as if it does not exist. Today, take some time to examine where your target customers are currently and whether the marketing channels you are sticking to might be a 'setting sun.' If even Oscar, with its nearly 100-year history, is changing, there is no reason why startups cannot.
— View original —
The Academy Awards, once called the greatest night of television, has been losing viewers for decades. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a major decision that will change the future direction of the Oscars.
It is a multi-year contract granting YouTube exclusive worldwide streaming rights for the Oscars from 2029 to 2033. This marks the end of the partnership with ABC that has continued since 1976. It is a moment when the way Hollywood celebrates itself fundamentally changes.
This decision amounts to an acknowledgment that the Oscars' influence on American popular culture has significantly weakened. Oscar viewership peaked in 1998. At that time, 55 million people tuned in to the ceremony where the movie *Titanic* swept the awards. In contrast, viewership for the 2025 broadcast stood at just 19.7 million. While this is the highest figure in the last five years, it falls short of even one-third of its peak.
The Academy has been looking for an alternative ahead of its contract with ABC expiring in 2028, and YouTube's offer is reportedly better than the terms offered by existing broadcasters.
In a joint statement, Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said, "We are thrilled to form a multi-layered global partnership with YouTube, which will be the future home for the Oscars and year-round Academy programs." They added, "The Academy is an international organization, and this collaboration will provide an opportunity to introduce the Academy's activities more broadly to the world's largest audiences." They further stated, "This will benefit both Academy members and the film industry."
Want to read the full article? Click!
Please click (touch) the link block below.
Go to the webpage where the article was written.