It goes without saying that the Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, is the most viewed and most prestigious awards programme in this day and age. Around 19 million people tune in from around the world to watch their favourite celebrities and movies get the recognition they deserve. For this and various other reasons, many companies are vying to be the next home of the Oscars. Surprisingly enough, according to Bloomberg, one of those companies is YouTube.
The streaming platform has expressed its interest in covering more live events, and this move to acquire the distinguished awards ceremony only emphasised that. With Netflix and Paramount+ broadcasting the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards and the Golden Globes rights respectively, it seems only fitting that another streaming service, albeit an unconventional one, take over the Academy Awards.
The reason for this commotion is that ABC’s contract for hosting the Oscars is coming to an end in 2028; companies are bidding to be the programme’s next home post-contract. Though YouTube may seem out of place for throwing its proverbial hat in the ring, it has more than proven itself to be more than capable of hosting live events. A case in point would be the NFL Sunday Ticket and Taylor Swift’s podcast debut, with the latter of which broke the record for most concurrent viewers in a live stream, peaking at 1.3 million views.
According to Bloomberg, if YouTube were to acquire Academy Awards, both the platform and the program would receive a massive spike in viewership and renewed interest. This change would be unprecedented for streaming platforms as a whole, not just YouTube, and since it is the most-watched video platform, the Oscars may experience a resurgence in terms of audience count.
However, the Google-owned website is up against some stiff competition from NBC, the Academy Awards’ previous home. It is unsure whether YouTube will succeed in obtaining the rights to host the show, but if it does, it will be a massive shock to the industry as a whole.
