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The Oscars are heading to YouTube. That’s the headline Hollywood, already close to capsizing as it reels from the structural turbulence of Netflix and Paramount circling Warner Bros like sharks, woke up to on Wednesday morning (LA time).
A sign of the times? It might be the oldest cliché in popular culture, but it never seems truer than today, as the Oscars prepare for a transition that will not only put them online, but send them global and at no cost to viewers.
The Oscars … moving to YouTube from 2029.Credit: AMPAS
The US network ABC currently owns the broadcast rights to the Oscars, in a deal which runs until the 100th annual Academy Awards in 2028. That date is already marked in calendars, due to its significance.
But after the centenary of the world’s most prestigious movie prize, the Oscars will shift to YouTube, in a new deal announced on Wednesday between the ubiquitous streamer and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which owns the Oscars.
That deal, which kicks off in 2029, will run until at least 2033, according to YouTube.
The Oscars will then, in effect, be available globally and no charge to a potential audience of over two billion people worldwide with access to the free ad-supported YouTube platform, and, in the US, the ad-free YouTube Premium and YouTube TV subscription services.
The most expensive envelope on earth.Credit: Getty
That aspect of the deal is key, as it dramatically reshapes one of the industry’s oldest sales and distribution models: that the Academy owns and then “licenses” the Oscars, country by country, to an individual broadcaster.
In Australia, the Oscars are currently licensed to Seven. Under a similar arrangement, they were previously licensed to Nine for many years.
The new deal means the Academy completes its global sales in a single transaction, and that the broadcaster – YouTube – effectively drops all barriers to access. That has never been an issue in Australia, where free-to-air networks have always owned the rights to the Oscars, but in various international markets, pay TV platforms have taken the rights.
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The YouTube deal includes more than just the Oscars themselves: also packaged into the arrangement are a red carpet pre-show and behind-the-scenes “in-show content”, the live “nominations announcement” telecast, and other Oscar spin-off events.
They include the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the Student Academy Awards, and the Scientific and Technical Oscars. The Academy said today they would also include official Oscar podcasts and other content still in development.
No financial details have been disclosed, but chatter in Los Angeles is that the deal is worth “nine figures”, that is to say, hundreds of millions of dollars. To compare, the existing ABC deal is worth close to but definitely below US$100 million ($151 million).
YouTube chief executive Neal Mohan on Wednesday described the Oscars as “one of our essential cultural institutions, honouring excellence in storytelling and artistry”.
“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,” he said.
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