The Academia de Hollywood has just taken a gigantic step towards the global configuration of a new media era dominated by streaming by granting YouTube absolute and exclusive rights to all Oscar broadcasts starting in 2029.
This means that starting with the 101st ceremony in its history, the Oscar will say goodbye forever to one of its great traditionstypical of the entire media ecosystem of the 20th century (and also, although in an increasingly narrow margin, of the 21st): the live television broadcast of the most watched awards ceremony in the world.
With the decision made by the Academy, Hollywood’s biggest party will be available in real time and with free access from anywhere on the planet. once the agreement with YouTube.
The new protagonist of this film will be streaming. It is quite a change of era for the Oscar (and for the entire immense audiovisual and media world that we identify with the screens) that will be launched in 2029, the first year of the second century of existence of Hollywood’s top prize. The agreement signed between the Academy and YouTube will extend at least until 2033.
This historic measure puts an end to the very long period that left in the hands of the powerful American television network ABC (belonging to Disney) the management of the exclusive transmission rights, extended in turn to the rest of the world through other stations or networks in charge in each region of broadcasting the ceremony. In 2028 we will have the last opportunity (no less than with the centenary celebrations) to follow the Oscar from Argentina through the traditional images and comments of TNT.
The agreement will allow YouTube not only the complete and exclusive broadcast of the Oscar ceremony. Starting in 2029, an enormous amount of complementary and additional material will be available on the platform (within the Hollywood Academy’s own channel): the presentation of the honorary awards (Governors Awards), the traditional lunch shared each year by the Oscar nominees in all categories, behind the scenes before and after the main ceremony, the announcement of the nominations, the parallel celebrations (scientific and technical awards; student awards) and even special broadcasts from spaces little known to the general public. to Hollywood, like the splendid Academy Museum.
That’s not all. As soon as the agreement was known, all of Hollywood began to speculate about the immense range of possibilities that YouTube would offer for the dissemination of the activities of the Hollywood Academy and, above all, for the creation of a renewed community of Oscar followers around the world. Many already imagine an endless series of broadcasts (interviews, podcasts, interactive meetings with stars, solidarity initiatives, educational programs) that will connect fans with the Oscar without the limitations of the conventional model that is beginning to say goodbye.
“The Academy has just taken the boldest step in its 100-year history. And it’s exactly what cinema needs,” wrote Hollywood awards analyst Variety, Clayton Davis, the news was barely known. In practical terms, the agreement extends a good part of the open innovations in this era dominated by streaming to the world of the Oscar.
In this sense, The first thing that the Hollywood press deduces from the agreement is a progressive empowerment of the viewer, until now subject to the rigidity of conventional live broadcast of the Oscar ceremonies. In recent years, the tension has deepened between the needs of the Academy, for which no category should be marginalized from the ceremony, and the demands of TV, in need of a show tight and attractive enough to guarantee a rating floor that in recent years has almost never been reached. Audience measurements tended downward year after year as testimony to a succession of unattractive and erratic shows from a visual point of view.
With this new scenario, no one will be able to imagine, among other novelties, a shorter ceremony. Quite the opposite. But by following her on YouTube no one will be looking at the clock. Streaming is a potential space with greater creative possibilities than conventional TV. And with YouTube as the main screen it is also possible to imagine, for example, a completely malleable transmission in time terms.
The conversation around the Oscar could extend to infinity and deepen at the same time, now from a media instance, the globalization of the prize, a trend notably accentuated in recent years.
In this sense, the platform also offers something that conventional television (open or pay) is not able to provide: follow each of the transmissions without obstacles in terms of language or schedule. YouTube has, for example, a tool to access automatic subtitling or audio tracks in several languages.
The Hollywood press begins to imagine other possible innovations. From moving the announcement of the nominations to a more globally friendly time instead of doing it as until now in the early hours of Los Angeles to imagining a new venue (or more than one?) for the main ceremony with greater capacity and better conditions for eventual interactive use.
On the other hand, there is always the risk that some of the new imagined content will become disposable or frankly banal materials, subordinating what is truly valuable or de-hierarchizing the importance and historical value of the film industry’s highest prize.
The same could be said of the inevitable need to add advertising support to a transmission model that by nature is expensive. How will ads and brands get into the Oscar when conventional rounds of television broadcasts no longer exist? What role will the influencersso present in the life of YouTube and at the same time so uncomfortable for true film lovers with some of their actions?
The first (and so far only) certainty of the agreement is that starting in 2029 the Oscar will have an available audience of more than 2 billion viewers around the world. We already know that the most watched awards ceremony in history is going to regain its centrality. We will see from this true change of era if it is also in a position to recover its lost splendor.
