LOS ANGELES — The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences said the Oscars will stream exclusively on Google-owned YouTube worldwide beginning in 2029, ending ABC’s era as the ceremony’s U.S. broadcast home. The switch reflects a bet that a free, global stream can reach younger viewers and counter a long ratings slide, Dec. 17, 2025.
The exclusive agreement runs from 2029 through 2033 and includes the live telecast plus a wider slate of Academy programming. Financial terms were not disclosed, and a person familiar with negotiations told Reuters’ report on the deal that ABC bid to keep the show but resisted paying a higher price.
ABC will still broadcast the Oscars in the United States through 2028, when the show reaches its 100th ceremony. In a statement carried by The Associated Press, ABC said it has been the “proud home” of the Oscars for decades and looked ahead to the final three telecasts, including the centennial celebration.
What the Oscars deal includes
The Academy said the Oscars will be available live and free on YouTube globally, with U.S. access also available to YouTube TV subscribers. The platform will add multilingual audio tracks and closed captioning to broaden accessibility, and YouTube will also carry related coverage such as red carpet programming, behind-the-scenes content and Governors Ball access, according to the Academy press office announcement.
Beyond Oscar night, the partnership includes exclusive worldwide distribution on the Oscars YouTube channel for events and programming such as the Governors Awards, nominations announcement, nominees luncheon, Student Academy Awards and Scientific and Technical Awards, the Academy said. It also ties in Google Arts & Culture, which the Academy said will help expand digital access to select Academy Museum exhibitions and support digitization of parts of the Academy Collection, described as more than 52 million items.
Why the Oscars are leaving broadcast TV
The move comes as TV audiences continue migrating to streaming and clips, even for tentpole live events. This year’s Oscars drew 19.7 million U.S. viewers, a five-year high but far below the late-1990s peak, Reuters reported, and the ceremony also streamed live on Hulu.
YouTube’s argument to the Academy is reach: The platform is already the biggest player in the living-room streaming ecosystem, and the Academy is betting that scale can translate into new viewers, new formats and new global engagement for the Oscars. Nielsen’s most recent Gauge report showed streaming at 46.7% of total TV watch time in November, a month the measurement firm described as historic for both broadcast and streaming in its November 2025 Gauge recap.
It is also a dramatic reversal from the last time the Academy locked in long-term stability with ABC. In 2016, ABC and the Academy announced an extension that kept the Oscars on the network through 2028, framing it as a path to the 100th show, according to the Academy’s 2016 agreement release and contemporaneous coverage by the Los Angeles Times.
Now, the Academy is positioning the next step as a global reset. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan called the Oscars “one of our essential cultural institutions” in the Academy’s announcement, while Academy leaders said the platform’s worldwide footprint will help expand access to the organization’s work year-round. The countdown to the last ABC telecast runs through 2028; the first YouTube-exclusive Oscars arrives in 2029.
