The Academy Awards, once television’s most glamorous night, have been hemorrhaging viewers for decades. On Wednesday, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a tourniquet: a multiyear deal granting YouTube exclusive global streaming rights to the Oscars from 2029 through 2033, ending a partnership with ABC that began in 1976 and fundamentally altering how Hollywood honors itself.
The shift represents a clear acknowledgment of the ceremony’s diminished grip on American culture. Oscar viewership peaked in 1998, when 55 million people tuned in to watch Titanic sweep the awards. The 2025 broadcast, meanwhile, drew 19.7 million viewers—a five-year high, but just over a third of that peak.
