Could the Oscars move off ABC in the coming years?
Could the Oscars move off ABC in the coming years?
A new report suggests the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences could look for a new partner for the awards ceremony.
The 2025 Oscars were… less than successful as a streaming show. Hulu live streamed the awards for the first time in the United States, but customers around the country experienced glitches at both the start and the end of the broadcast. Of course, that doesn’t mean that the Academy Awards won’t stream again in the future. According to Lucas Shaw of Bloomberg, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences could be looking to move on from its nearly five-decade broadcast partnership with Disney.
Key Details:
- Disney will own the rights to the Oscars telecast until at least 2028.
- The Academy wants to make more for the rights to the ceremony, and wants a global audience for them.
- Netflix and Prime Video would be the most logical partners to help the Academy achieve these goals.
The Oscars won’t be moving away from ABC immediately, even if they do eventually leave Disney behind. The deal between the two sides, which sees Disney pay more than $100 million per year for the rights to the telecast, lasts through at least 2028. ABC first broadcast the Academy Awards in 1976, making Sunday’s broadcast the network’s 49th in a row.
Still, Shaw reports that the Academy is looking to grow the size of the deal, which Disney is reluctant to do thanks in part to slipping ratings for the ceremony and the continued decline of linear television. There’s also a desire to take the Oscars telecast global, which isn’t possible if Disney insists on streaming the awards on Hulu only, since Hulu is only available in the United States. Disney has broadcast the ceremony internationally in the past on Disney+, and with the slow movement toward merging the services, that could be a possibility for the future.
Related: How to stream the 2025 Academy Award winners
Disney and the Academy began negotiations on a new deal last year, but their exclusive haggling period passed without an agreement. Informal discussions between the Academy and other outlets, such as Netflix, have already begun. That streamer has more than 300 million global viewers, and Prime Video has over 200 million customers around the globe. But outside of those two platforms, finding a streamer or channel with a large enough global audience to move away from Disney could be a challenge for the Academy.
For its part, Shaw says Netflix would also want access to the Academy’s library of footage. The streamer has also made enemies in the world of cinema, thanks to its continued reluctance to put its original movies in theaters for any length of time. That was a point regularly referenced both directly and tangentially by host Conan O’Brien and others throughout Sunday’s telecast.
Perhaps the Academy and Disney could work out an agreement to stream the Oscars on Disney+ in the future? In 2023, Disney+ streamed the Academy Awards in several countries, but not the United States. If Disney could agree to pay a little more for the Oscars rights in exchange, it could gain the ability to stream the ceremony around the world on Disney+.
The situation won’t be coming to a head right away, but it will bear watching over the next few years. The Oscars are still one of the most-watched non-football telecasts of each and every year, and Disney may want to think twice before letting them get away.
Disney+
Disney+ is a video streaming service with over 13,000 series and films from Disney, Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, National Geographic, The Muppets, and more. It is available in 61 countries and 21 languages. It is notable for its popular original series like “The Mandalorian,” “Ms. Marvel,” “Loki,” “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” and “Andor.”