The Oscars’ Multi-Year YouTube Deal and What It Means for African Creators and Audiences 

Cinema lovers across the world were stunned after the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences entered into a multi-year partnership with YouTube, granting the streaming platform exclusive broadcast access to the Oscars from 2029 to 2033. ABC, the US-based television network where the industry’s vibrant event has aired for decades, will lose its broadcast rights after 2028. This move signals a growing global tilt from traditional television to digital streaming options.

YouTube’s rights to broadcast the Oscars will include segments like red carpet, behind-the-scenes, Governors Ball and  nominations announcement, making them available to viewers live and for free. The platform beats several competitors, including NBCUniversal to secure this licensing deal, a move that could reframe how the streaming platform is perceived and offer it a certain prestige alongside Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, HBO Max and Apple TV+. Interestingly, this deal is coming just weeks after Netflix’s acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) film & TV studios and streaming business (including HBO and HBO Max), another power move that took the world by surprise.

Since its inception in 1929, the Oscars, also known as the Academy Awards, has established itself as the foremost movie awards occasion in the world, recognizing excellence across all categories of filmmaking and honoring outstanding individuals, bodies and projects.  While the event is hosted annually in the United States, it welcomes contributions from other regions. The Best International Feature Film (formerly Best Foreign Language Film) category primarily caters to non-US films, recognizing non-feature-length films produced outside the United States with predominantly non-English dialogue. Winning an Oscar is essentially perceived as a pinnacle of achievement for creatives, often attracting strong international appeal and triggering box office success.

While fine details of the Oscars-YouTube deal are largely unknown, what’s certain is an expectation that the streamer helps to amplify the Oscars over the period of their partnership. With YouTube ranking as the most-watched streaming largely in the world, boasting billions of monthly users, this seems like the perfect deal for the Oscars to consolidate its legacy and reach audiences in economically disadvantaged regions. YouTube will democratize the Oscars so that the Awards can be accessed by everyone regardless of where they come from so long as the platform is available there.

Africa has, so far, scraped from the Oscars’ largesse. Kaouther Ben Hania’s Voice of Hind Rajab (Tunisia) was recently nominated as the sole representative of Africa in the Best International Feature Film spot of the 2026 Oscars. The last African film to win in that category is South Africa’s Tsotsi, directed by Gavin Hood, in 2006. Once the YouTube partnership kicks off, African creators can make Oscars-related videos comprising reactions, analyses, and predictions travel to global audiences through the YouTube algorithm and possibly improve the chances of the continent’s selections. Creators can also easily collect Oscars’ content, such as interviews and highlights, and reuse responsibly for review or commentary. Increased interest and conversations around the Oscars will eventually generate more revenue  for creators whose YouTube accounts are already monetised. This could potentially uplift such creators from poverty.

Having direct access to the Oscars on YouTube could be a huge confidence booster for local African filmmakers. These filmmakers can easily get inspired by winners at the occasion and dream of a similar path to global visibility. These filmmakers have access to varied conversations around global filmmaking in a way that encourages them to seek cross-cultural collaborations and international co-production treaties. As every Oscars season approaches, there is organic exposure for African filmmakers, with highlights and commentaries making it to YouTube.

Since YouTube is available for free, audiences from Africa and other developing countries with high poverty rates can watch the Oscars at a relatively cheaper cost compared to that of subscription-based satellite TVs. Viewership among the younger audience, particularly the digitally inclined ones in Africa who already use YouTube, could rise.

For African filmmakers and audiences, this Oscars-YouTube liaison is a reminder that the key to staying relevant in the volatile film ecosystem is through constant evolution.