The Oscars are heading to YouTube, where it can go as long as it wants

Starting in 2029, the Academy Awards will move from ABC to YouTube.

By Matt Schimkowitz  |  December 17, 2025 | 3:13pm
Photo: Rodin Eckenroth/Getty Images
Film News Academy Awards
The Oscars are heading to YouTube, where it can go as long as it wants

Beginning with the 2029 101st annual Academy Awards, the Oscars will no longer be available on network television, where advertising dollars and local news dictate how long Adrian Brody’s acceptance speeches should be. As announced earlier today, when the Oscars’ current contract expires, those little gold men will march over to YouTube and YouTube TV, where the ceremony will be live and free to YouTube’s massive viewership. The contract runs through 2033 and covers all of the Academy’s content, including red carpet, behind-the-scenes, the Governors Ball, and more. The “holistic partnership” with the Google Arts & Culture initiative, the press release touts, will make specific Academy Museum exhibitions and programs available online and digitize parts of the Academy Collection. “It will be a true hub for film fans and will be accessible from around the world,” the Academy states.

We suppose one positive aspect of this, at least for those who like to give extensive thank-you speeches, is that the Academy will have no reason to play any winners off the stage. Or, at the very least, allow them to go a little longer. The downside is that YouTube’s ad placement is generally so random that there’s a good chance we’ll be seeing that awful Kristi Noem ICE ad in the middle of Timothée Chalamet’s 2031 acceptance speech for Best Actor for Dune: Part Five.

 
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