The Oscar nominees have been announced! And the broadcast is moving to YouTube in '29.

[thewayne]

I'm not going to bother talking about the nominees. There was a point in time where I had a minimal interest in that, but not anymore. Most of the Best Picture nominees never show at my local theater, and my theatrical movie watching has really declined over recent years.

The thing that I find interesting is that in two years, we'll have the last broadcast on broadcast television. It is estimated that ABC/Disney paid over $100,000,000 for last years broadcast, and were looking for lower fees as viewer numbers have been declining. With the broadcast going streaming, there's no time limit: as the article says, the broadcast could be six hours long with Mr. Beast hosting.

It will be mildly interesting to see what kind of viewership numbers YouTube/Google can pull. Most people with streaming can pull it up on the same TV with which they watched it on ABC, but now they can easily view it in more countries than ABC/Disney was able to reach. And people can probably watch it more easily on devices while at work.

But I still don't really care.

https://variety.com/2025/film/news/oscars-youtube-2029-1236610989/

https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/17/210247/the-oscars-will-abandon-broadcast-tv-for-youtube-in-2029

Comments

[silveradept]

I suspect that going to YouTube will actually be perfect for the Academy Awards, as it will give them the ability to put on whatever show they want, and they will receive the ratings that they have been earning over the last several years. It might work fine for YouTube for being able to advertise that they have the Oscars, but, no, I haven't been interested in the show…ever. Mostly in the fashion reviews and in anything that's out of the ordinary there, and possibly a Billy Crystal montage. But that was it.