Disney Could Lose The Oscars After ABC’s Exclusive Negotiating Window Ends

This past Sunday night, Disney broadcast the 97th Oscar awards on its ABC linear channel and on Hulu for the first time.  Internationally, the show was also broadcast live on Disney+ in many countries.

According to Disney, the Oscars pulled in 18.07 million viewers in the United States, which is down 7% from last year. However, there were some technical issues with the live stream on Hulu, as it was cut short before the last two categories were announced due to the show going longer than expected.

General audiences for award ceremonies continue to decline year on year, down about half from the 1990s and 2000s. Deadline is reporting that the Academy is now looking to shop around the Oscars event to other outlets as Disney’s exclusive negotiating window has ended. The two companies have failed to reach an agreement because the Academy wanted more money, which is currently estimated to be around $100 million a year.

Disney has the exclusive rights to show the Oscars until 2028, but now the Academy is looking to find the best deal possible. Back in 2016, Disney and the Academy signed a new contract for the Oscars, three years before it was due to expire in 2020. The two companies have been partners for fifty years.

Prior to this year’s Oscars event, Disney revealed that it had sold all of the advertising slots available, which were being sold for between $1.7 million to $2.3 million for 30 seconds of commercial time on the TV broadcast.  So Disney has to sell a lot of advertising to not just cover the cost of $100 million per event, but also to make a profit.

A similar situation happened with the Grammys, which had been with CBS for decades. However, Disney was able to pick up the rights to the event for around $70 million a year. The Grammys have made changes to their presentation, making it more like a concert than just an awards show.

Disney would still like to broadcast the Oscars, but isn’t willing to pay more than it is right now. There are also other issues for the Academy since moving the show to Netflix could prove to be problematic since the Oscars generally celebrates theatrical releases, something Netflix doesn’t like to do with its own movies.

Roger’s Take:  While the Oscars is one of the most popular live events of the year, there’s little doubt that the viewership numbers for the show are much lower than they used to be, and Disney might not be interested in spending more money on a show that is losing viewers year on year.  However, other platforms like Netflix might be interested in picking up the rights to the event as they look to build out their live content.

Do you think the Oscars should stay with Disney? Let me know on social media!