The Oscars Are Going to YouTube. It’s Another Hit to Traditional TV.

The Oscars are moving to YouTube in 2029. (Angela Weiss / AFP / Getty Images)

Key Points

• The Academy Awards will move to YouTube in 2029, ending a long-standing broadcast on ABC, with content available through 2033.
• The Oscars achieved a five-year high of 19.7 million total viewers in 2025, an important program for ABC.
• Streaming accounted for 46.7% of TV watch-time in November, surpassing cable at 20.5% and broadcast at 23.2%.

The Oscars are moving to YouTube, taking a major program away from traditional TV as viewers continue to cut the cable cord.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Wednesday that the Oscars—its annual and prestigious film award ceremony—will be moving to YouTube in 2029. Alphabet-owned YouTube will host the Academy Awards, red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content, and more, through 2033.

All of this content will be available free on YouTube and to YouTube TV subscribers in the U.S.

“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 CEO Bill Kramer and Academy President Lynette Howell Taylor said in a joint statement on Wednesday.

The Oscars have been airing live on Walt Disney’s ABC network since the 1970s. Barron’s has reached out to Disney for comment.

The Oscars was an important program for ABC. Disney said on March 4 that the Academy Awards hit a five-year high in total viewers—19.7 million—in 2025. Disney also streamed the Oscars on Hulu last year as more people moved to streaming and away from traditional TV viewing.

According to research firm Nielsen, streaming services overtook traditional TV—cable and broadcast—in total usage for the first time ever in May. That trend has continued. Per the most recent data, streaming represented 46.7% of TV watch-time in November, beating the combined watch-time of cable, at 20.5%, and broadcast, at 23.2%.

Nielsen data have also consistently shown that YouTube leads in people’s TV watch-time, beating out streamers like Netflix and Disney+. YouTube’s free-to-watch app that offers both long-form and short-form creator-generated content helps the platform maintain its number-one spot.

Hosting a show like the Oscars should be another win for YouTube.

Write to Angela Palumbo at angela.palumbo@dowjones.com