By Gavin Boyle
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced that its annual award show – the Oscars – will begin to air for free on YouTube starting in 2029.
“We are thrilled to enter into a multifaceted global partnership with YouTube to be the future home of the Oscars and our year-round Academy programming,” said Academy CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor in a joint statement. “The Academy is an international organization, and this partnership will allow us to expand access to the work of the Academy to the largest worldwide audience possible – which will be beneficial for our Academy members and the film community.”
“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. 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 announcement continued.
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This shift from linear TV to streaming on YouTube marks a major moment in entertainment history as ABC has hosted the show for years, and it has always aired as a traditional linear TV broadcast.
“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 deal with YouTube is also a significant blow to traditional streaming, as the platform beat out streamers like Netflix and NBCUniversalto secure the rights to the award show.
In recent years, YouTube established itself as a major player in the entertainment industry. From landing the top viewership in TVs month after month since 2023 to securing the rights to live sports like NFL and NBA games, YouTube has carved out a place in the industry that beats out both traditional studios and streamers.
“For more and more people, watching TV means watching YouTube,” Mohan wrote in YouTube’s 2025 annual letter which was released in May. “Viewers are watching, on average, over 1B hours of YouTube content on TVs daily, and TV is now the primary device for YouTube viewing in the U.S. But the ‘new’ television doesn’t look like the ‘old’ television. It’s interactive and includes things like Shorts (yes, people watch them on TVs), podcasts, and live streams, right alongside the sports, sitcoms and talk shows people already love.”
Now, as YouTube takes on the rights to the Oscars, it not only continues to draw an inconceivable number of viewers every month, but also has become a go-to destination for those in the industry as they look to reach the billions of global viewers YouTube offers.
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