The audience for the Oscars is dropping precipitously, so from 2029 YouTube will have the exclusivity of broadcasting the event

In the United States, according to Nielsen audience data, the 2026 edition of the Academy Awards attracted about 17.86 million viewers, down almost 9% from 19.7 million in 2025 and 19.5 million in 2024. The comparison with the past is even more significant: in the 1990s, the ceremony often exceeded 50 million viewers. The lowest point was reached in 2021, with only 10.5 million. A downward trend that continues.

For this reason, starting in 2029, the Oscars will undergo a radical transformation. After almost a century of shared history with traditional television, the American Film Academy has decided to transfer the global broadcast of the ceremony to the YouTube platform, marking an important change in the way the public around the world will watch the most important event of the year in the film industry, reports RaiNews, quoted by Rador Radio Romania.

The deal will go into effect with the 101st Academy Awards and will guarantee the platform global exclusivity until at least 2033.

Practically, this means the end of the long-standing collaboration of the ceremony in the United States with the historical broadcaster ABC and especially the abandonment of the model based on the sale of rights to national television stations.

Therefore, the Academy Awards will no longer be broadcast live on televisions around the world in the format we are used to.

In Europe, the Oscar ceremony has always had a relatively small audience, largely due to the late hours at which it was broadcast, RaiNews notes. With decent audience figures, but far from those seen at major national television events, confirming that the Oscars are primarily watched by an avid audience.

It is precisely this context that explains the Academy's decision. The move to streaming is not only a response to declining TV ratings, but also an attempt to capture new consumption habits. YouTube, with its extensive reach and potential to reach billions of users, is an ideal platform to relaunch the event on a global scale, especially among younger audiences.

So Oscar night isn't going away, it's morphing. From a televised ritual to a global digital event, accessible with a click from anywhere in the world. It remains to be seen whether this change will truly bring the ceremony back to the forefront of international attention, or whether it will simply mark an inevitable adaptation to the current times.