The Oscars are headed to YouTube after 50-plus years on ABC. Is traditional TV officially over?

MW The Oscars are headed to YouTube after 50-plus years on ABC. Is traditional TV officially over?

By Lukas I. Alpert

Starting in 2029, the Academy Awards will be broadcast exclusively on YouTube, leaving little to watch on traditional television

Adrien Brody won the Oscar for best actor earlier this year for his work in the film "The Brutalist." The Academy Awards have been shown on ABC for decades, but starting in 2029, they will move to YouTube.

And the Academy Awards go to ... YouTube.

Starting in 2029, the Oscars will be exclusively broadcast on Alphabet Inc.'s $(GOOGL)$ $(GOOG)$ YouTube, ending a more than 50-year run on Walt Disney Co.'s $(DIS)$ ABC and raising the question of whether traditional broadcast television is dead.

The move marks an apex in the steady migration of viewers and programming to streaming platforms and away from cable and broadcast television networks. Those channels had hung on to audiences largely thanks to their stranglehold on live events.

But their grip has been rapidly loosening, as sports leagues have increasingly shifted their broadcasts to streaming in recent years.

"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," Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer and President Lynette Howell Taylor said in a joint statement. "We will be able to celebrate cinema, inspire new generations of filmmakers and provide access to our film history on an unprecedented global scale."

The deal will run through 2033, with the Oscars broadcast, including coverage of the red carpet, available live and for free to over 2 billion viewers across the world, the Academy said. The broadcast will be simulcast in multiple languages.

"The Oscars are one of our essential cultural institutions, honoring excellence in storytelling and artistry," said YouTube CEO Neal Mohan. "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 Oscars were first shown on television in 1953, airing on NBC. In 1961 the broadcast moved to ABC, and then in 1976, after a five-year run back at NBC, the awards show returned to ABC. It has remained on the Disney-owned network ever since.

The Oscars drew audiences as big as 50 million in the late 1990s and early 2000s, hitting a record of 57 million in 1998. But in recent years that number has declined precipitously, falling to an all-time low of 10 million in 2021, although it bounced back to a five-year high of 19.7 million earlier this year, helped in part by Disney streaming the event on Hulu.

The move by the Oscars is a key event in the shift over the past decade away from broadcast television to streaming, with little left on traditional TV these days aside from live events.

Netflix $(NFLX)$ began airing the Actor Awards (formerly known as the Screen Actors Guild Awards) in 2024. The Golden Globes airs on Paramount Skydance Inc.'s $(PSKY)$ CBS and is also streamed on Paramount+.

-Lukas I. Alpert

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December 17, 2025 14:54 ET (19:54 GMT)

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