The Oscars Are Already a YouTube Event  

The Oscars may still air on broadcast television today, but the audience conversation has already moved to YouTube – and this shift is only accelerating.

In 2029, the Academy Awards will move exclusively to YouTube, signaling a major transformation in how one of entertainment’s biggest events will be distributed and monetized.

For advertisers, that transition isn’t a future problem. The YouTube opportunity is already here.

Key Takeaways for Advertisers

• Viewership around the Oscars is massive, and growing: Oscars-related content generated 12.4B views in 2025, about 650x the views seen on TV, and a +72% increase vs. 2023, signaling rapidly growing audience engagement on the platform.
• The opportunity extends far beyond the night of the show: Oscars-related viewership remains elevated for months, with March–June views averaging 73% higher than the rest of the year.
• Short-form moments drive engagement: Viral clips—red carpet highlights, speeches, and celebrity moments—power much of the Oscars conversation on YouTube.
• Advertisers should start testing now: Experimenting with high-awareness ad formats, contextual placements, and remarketing strategies will help brands build a playbook for activating around future YouTube-native tentpole events.

Oscars Viewership on YouTube Is Surging

Pixability’s analysis shows that Oscars-related viewership on YouTube has scaled dramatically in recent years.

• 12.4B total Oscars-related views in 2025, versus ~20 million on TV in 2025
  • That’s about 650x more views on YouTube than on broadcast!
• +72% more views than in 2023 on YouTube

But the most important insight isn’t just scale, it’s the duration of this impact.

While traditional broadcast viewership peaks during the ceremony, YouTube engagement extends the cultural moment for months. From March-June, well after the show originally aired, average monthly Oscars-related views remained +73% higher than the rest of the year.

For advertisers, that means events like The Oscars are no longer a single-night media opportunity. They’re a multi-month content ecosystem.

Clip Culture Takeover

Much like the rest of YouTube (and social more broadly), short-form video is taking over. Audiences aren’t looking to watch full broadcasts anymore, they’re consuming moments.

In 2025 alone, YouTube saw:

• 3.7B views on red carpet moments
• 838M views on category-specific prediction videos
• 404M views on acceptance speech highlights 

The most viral videos often center on celebrity interactions or unexpected moments, with individual clips generating tens of millions of views. For example, this moment of Ariana Grande and Billie Elish accidentally interrupting an interview with Academy president, Janet Yang, garnered a whopping 107M views, and is only 8 seconds long. 

This “clip economy” is what turns the Oscars into a global conversation across YouTube.

YouTube Channels Help Oscars Content Reach More Viewers

While official channels remain important—The Oscars channel generated 514M views in 2025—much of the discussion happens across creators and media publishers.

We already know YouTube is becoming the new hub for programming like Late Night TV, and major publishers like ABC News, Jimmy Kimmel Live, and Entertainment Tonight each generated tens of millions of Oscars-related views, while film commentators, entertainment channels, and fashion creators also drive significant engagement.

For advertisers, this means the Oscars audience isn’t concentrated in one place, it’s distributed across a broad creator ecosystem.

Oscars Season Becomes a Discovery Moment

Search behavior reinforces how audiences use YouTube during awards season.

In the past month, top searches have focused on:

• Oscar speeches
• Performances
• Iconic past moments
• Oscar-nominated films and shorts

One of the fastest-growing search queries recently has been “Oscar nominated shorts 2026,” highlighting YouTube’s role as a discovery platform for films and nominees.

Advertising Best Practices for Oscars Season on YouTube

Activating around the Oscars and other cultural tentpoles on YouTube requires the right mix of formats, targeting, and timing. Key tactics include implementing:

High-Impact Ad Formats

• Skippable & non-skippable in-stream ads for peak viewing moments
• Bumper ads for high-frequency awareness
• YouTube Select and Masthead placements for premium reach

Contextually Target Awards-Season Audiences

• Entertainment enthusiasts
• Film fans
• Luxury consumers
• Custom intent and affinity audiences tied to Oscar nominees and films

Extend the Moment

• Use geo-targeting for global reach
• Activate remarketing during and after the live event to capture viewers engaging with highlights and commentary

Why Advertisers Should Start Testing Now

The Oscars’ eventual move to YouTube will fundamentally reshape how brands activate around awards season. The next few years represent a critical test-and-learn window for advertisers to build a YouTube-first playbook.

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