The Oscars to Depart ABC and Broadcast Live on YouTube Beginning in the Year 2029.
The Academy Awards are set to start airing only on YouTube in the year 2029, marking the most recent substantial change in Hollywood.
The organization behind the Oscars made the announcement on this week, indicating that it signed a multi-year deal granting the streaming service the unique international license to the Oscars until 2033.
The Oscars, which is planned for 15 March, has been televised for 50 years on ABC. Commencing in 2029, the event will be available live and for free on YouTube.
This is one more major restructuring in Hollywood, which is dealing with studio sales and mergers, in addition to steep slashes to movie budgets.
"Our Academy represents an international organization, and this collaboration will enable us to broaden reach to the mission of the Academy to the most extensive international crowd attainable - which will be beneficial for our film artists and the film community," remarked organization heads in a release.
Over decades, audience numbers of the awards show have fallen, even if there was a slight uptick in recent years, with a considerable amount of youthful audiences watching from cell phones and computers.
In a corresponding announcement, the video platform's chief executive described the Oscars "a key essential pillars of culture" and said that partnering with the Academy would "motivate a younger cohort of innovation and film lovers while adhering to the Oscars' celebrated history".
The broadcast network, which has aired the awards since 1976, said that it was eagerly anticipating "to the upcoming broadcasts" it will still host.
This decision follows large entertainment companies face complex corporate battles. Such proposals were seen as concerning for an business that has seen significant downsizing over the recent period.
Similar to big production houses, cable networks have encountered challenges as the audience has increasingly opted for on-demand video as an alternative.
The platform securing rights to the Oscars further suggests that dependence on streaming sites will persist to grow.
