YouTube inks deal to broadcast the Oscars in 2029 and beyond

There may not be any golden statuettes on display at YouTube HQ, but the platform just earned a different type of Oscar win. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which organizes and votes on the Academy Awards each spring, has announced that YouTube will be the official host of the Oscars from 2029 to 2033.

YouTube’s bid for the Academy Award broadcast rights was no secret. A Bloomberg report published this past August revealed YouTube’s Oscar ambitions; in recent years, the platform has spent freely to acquire the rights to big-name events, such as the exclusive NFL broadcast it hosted at the start of the current football season.

The 2028 Oscars, which will double as the ceremony’s 100th birthday, will bring an end to ABC‘s uninterrupted, five-decade run as the gala’s broadcaster. Starting in 2029, YouTube will take the reins. The initial rights deal between the Academy and Google’s video platform will run through 2033, though there is always a possibility for the agreement to be extended beyond that point (if we still have Hollywood by then).

“The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry,” YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said in a statement. “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.”

As with its other forays into mainstream culture, YouTube will have to figure out how its creator community fits into its Oscars broadcast. On one hand, YouTube should be proud of its contributions to cinema, especially as creators like RackaRacka

and Chris Stuckmann become in-demand Hollywood filmmakers. But if YouTube beats the creator drum too fiercely, it risks alienating the traditionalists who don’t know MrBeast from Adam (and prefer to keep it that way).

These days, the Oscars don’t have much of an audience for YouTube to alienate. The ceremony’s viewership has plummeted since its turn-of-the-millennium highs. If YouTube can keep the Oscars’ Nielsen-style ratings above 20 million, it would be a marked improvement over recent traffic numbers.

There’s one potential solution to those declining ratings that YouTube seems eager to strive for: It wants to turn the Oscars into a year-round event. As part of the distribution deal, the Academy is working with the Google Arts & Culture initiative to digitize the Academy Collection and enable access to select Academy Museum exhibits. The result of that partnership will be “a true hub for film fans,” as the Academy put it in its official press release.

Internet video platforms have become important repositories for film buffs, so it only makes sense for YouTube to play a bigger role in the industry’s annual festivities. We may not see Mark Rober replace his buddy Jimmy Kimmel as a perennial Oscars host, but the YouTube Oscars are likely to be different from the shows that came before — and that’s kinda the point.