The Oscars Are Leaving ABC for YouTube, and That's the Right Call

Academy CEO Bill Kramer promised 'a very different-looking Oscars' after ABC's audience fell to 17.86 million this year.

The Oscars are leaving ABC for YouTube in 2029, and I think it's the best call the Academy has made in years. The people mourning the broadcast are defending a habit, and a habit isn't a plan.

Bill Kramer, the Academy's CEO, didn't give an inch on Saturday at the Zurich Film Festival Summit in Switzerland, The Hollywood Reporter first reported. When Deadline's Andreas Wiseman asked whether the move was a gamble, Kramer answered, "It almost feels risky not to do it."

He's right.

Look at the ratings. This year's show drew 17.86 million viewers on ABC and Hulu by Nielsen's count, the outlet reported, down about 9 percent from 19.69 million in 2025. That was the smallest crowd since 2022, when 16.68 million watched. Another slide that size and the show sinks below its 2022 floor.

Now look at who the deal lets in. Kramer said more people watch the Oscars outside the U.S. than inside it, and the YouTube version will be free and translated into 30 languages. That's Hollywood's biggest night, made in this town, handed to anyone with a phone and a connection at no charge. Kramer also argued that every month, a bigger share of people watching TV are doing it on YouTube. ABC has carried the show since 1976. Loyalty to a channel is a strange thing to ask of a global audience.

I'd assumed the whole case was about reach. Kramer's own pitch is about control. He said YouTube lets the Academy talk directly to fans in ways it can't under the current setup, and the deal isn't just one night. The red carpet, the nominations announcement, the Governors Awards and a pile of year-round content go to YouTube too. My favorite on that list is the Student Academy Awards, which will live on the same site as the main event. A place for beginners next to the big show is the Academy finally acting like a year-round institution with one address.

Then there's the comparison Kramer made himself. He pointed at Kane Parsons, the Backrooms filmmaker sharing his stage, as proof that talent now travels from YouTube to movie theaters, not the other way around. An organization that exists to celebrate theatrical film should want to be wherever the next Parsons is getting started.

The mourners do have one real point. Free over-the-air TV reaches people with an antenna and no internet bill, and those viewers tend to be older and lower-income. A stream, however free, is useless without a connection. Kramer's Zurich pitch was about reach, not access, and that's the question I'd press the Academy on between now and 2029.

The other fear is that a platform deal hands the show's future to Google, which owns YouTube. That's fair, but the Oscars already live on one giant's goodwill. The Academy took in $150 million from the ceremony across 2024 and 2025, the outlet reported, most of it through the TV rights deal with Disney. Swapping one corporate partner for another isn't new dependence. The new partner is simply taking the Academy's whole calendar instead of a single night. Kramer wouldn't put a figure on the YouTube money, only saying it was good.

Nobody's seen a YouTube Oscars yet, so the case rests on Kramer's words and Nielsen's numbers. They point the same way. He said the Academy is already deep in talks with YouTube CEO Neal Mohan's team about how the show will look, and promised "a very different-looking Oscars."

Disney keeps the show for two more years, Kramer said. Then comes the 101st Oscars, free, in 30 languages, on the site he credits with sending Backrooms to theaters.

Source: hollywoodreporter.com, retrieved September 26, 2026.