The Oscars will move to YouTube worldwide in 2029, marking a historic change in television.

The gala will be broadcast on the streaming giant at least until 2033, which represents a transformation of this type of event.

2029 will be a historic year for the Oscars, and for television awards ceremonies in general.

Twelve months after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences celebrates its 100th anniversary (in 2028) of awarding the best in film, the ceremony will move to a digital platform for the first time, specifically YouTube , the reigning giant of them all. The internet television giant, owned by Google, will be responsible for broadcasting the Oscars from at least 2029 to 2033, and, in another change to the ceremony’s traditional format, it will be broadcast worldwide, as the Academy announced this Wednesday in a statement.

This move represents a long-awaited change of course, but no less important for that. The Academy had been searching for a buyer for the Oscars rights for months.

These rights have been held by Disney and ABC since 1976 (NBC aired them for the previous two years), and streaming was a priority for the association, given the significant decline in traditional television viewership.

In the US, broadcast television has fallen from 64% of the audience share (cable and broadcast combined) in 2021 to 43.7% in just four years, according to Nielsen ratings this November. Of that share, YouTube alone holds 12.9% of the audience, along with a substantial amount of money to make this sale, while Netflix, its closest rival, still lags behind with 8.3%.

The other key aspect of this agreement appears to be the power of a global platform to broadcast the ceremony worldwide, an event that increasingly features films from around the globe. Until now, Disney sold the rights country by country.

In Spain, for example, it has traditionally been broadcast by Movistar Plus+, and in Latin America by Warner’s TNT channel. Now everything will be under one roof and one brand, making it easier to sell advertising collectively.

YouTube will also broadcast, according to the agreement, all kinds of content surrounding the Academy Awards: the red carpet, the nominations, the Governors’ Honorary Awards (which were not previously broadcast), the nominees’ luncheon, the student awards, the technical awards, podcasts , and educational films about the history of the Academy and its museum. Furthermore, Google’s Culture and Arts division will support the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles , which it will help to digitize.

Google had money to spare, so Netflix (which broadcasts other awards shows like the Screen Actors Guild Awards), NBCUniversal, and Paramount dropped out of the bidding. Deadline reports that, given declining viewership and a focus on less commercial films, Disney was not interested in paying such high figures, even though it had exclusivity in the negotiations until early 2025.

In Spain, the Feroz Awards have also been broadcast on the digital platform in recent years. Furthermore, YouTube TV is on track to become the largest paid provider of television channels in the US, and the platform’s use on televisions has continued to grow worldwide, making this one of its main expansion goals’

The Oscars are one of the essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and creativity,” explained Neal Mohan, CEO of YouTube, in the statement.

“Joining the Academy to bring this celebration of art and entertainment to viewers around the world will inspire a new generation of creatives and film lovers as we continue the Oscars legacy.”

The CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Bill Kramer, and President Lynette Howell Taylor, noted that this agreement underscores the Academy’s position as an “international organization”:

“This partnership will propel us to expand the Academy’s work to the largest possible global audience network, benefiting members and the film community.”

This shift has been evident in recent years in the growing number of international voters and in the awards success of films like Parasite , Anatomy of a Fall, Zone of Interest, and Emilia Pérez, which are not American. Next year, at the gala to be held on March 16 in Los Angeles, those mentions are expected to also include films such as Sentimental Value, The Secret Agent or A Simple Accident .

The Hollywood Reporter points out that such a ceremony was generating less and less revenue for traditional television, which continues to lose viewers. According to financial documents they had access to, the Oscars brought in $150 million (around €127 million) in profit at last year‘s ceremony, hosted by Conan O’Brien.

And, although it was still one of the most-watched television events (second only to the Grammys), its reach had fallen from a record 57 million viewers in the US in 1998 (or 45 million in a typical year) to the 19 million it has achieved in recent years. The lowest figure, however, was reached after the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, with a scaled-down ceremony that only reached 10 million viewers.

The 101st anniversary will therefore mark a definitive turning point, because now audiences will be counted globally and controlled by the platforms themselves, without any need for transparency.