Oscars to undergo major broadcasting change after 50 years on ABC

YouTube has won the right to exclusively broadcast the awards show from 2029

The Oscars will be broadcast for free, worldwide, exclusively on YouTube from 2029.

The new deal, which runs from 2029 to 2033, brings to an end 50 years of the awards ceremony being shown on ABC.

In a statement to The Independent, 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.”

They continued: “The Academy is an international organization, and this partnership will allow us to expand access to the work of the Academy to the largest worldwide audience possible — which will be beneficial for our Academy members and the film community.

“This collaboration will leverage YouTube’s vast reach and infuse the Oscars and other Academy programming with innovative opportunities for engagement while honoring our legacy. We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers and provide access to our film history on an unprecedented global scale.”

2025’s Oscar winners Adrien Brody, Mikey Madison, Zoe Saldana, and Kieran Culkin (Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP File)

ABC will continue to broadcast the Oscars until 2028, which will be the 100th ceremony.

Neal Mohan, the CEO of YouTube, added in a statement: “The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring 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.”

The deal also includes rights to a series of other Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences events, which will also be broadcast via YouTube. This includes the Governors Awards, the Oscars Nominations Announcement, the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the Student Academy Awards, the Scientific and Technical Awards, Academy member and various interviews with filmmakers.

Google, which owns YouTube, will also partner with the Academy through their Google Arts & Culture initiative to provide digital access to certain Academy Museum exhibitions and will work to digitize the Academy Collection.

The Academy Museum opened in 2021. In a review at the time, The Independent wrote: “Filling the museum with props and artefacts was never going to be a problem, given the Academy’s extensive world-class archives, but clearly they had ambitions for the project beyond simply building the world’s most expensive Planet Hollywood...

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“The museum has to function as much as a family friendly tourist attraction as it does a learned institution dedicated to advancing society’s understanding of the art and science of movie-making. But what’s impressive about the Academy Museum is that it manages to do both.”