After twenty years of Sky broadcasting the Oscars, the biggest film awards show is now going to be airing on ITV and ITVX in the United Kingdom. The new multi-year deal with Disney Entertainment, will see ITV unrolling the red carpet to homes across the UK as the exclusive partner for the 96th Oscars, which will take place on Sunday, March 10th, 2024.

The ceremony will broadcast and stream live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood into living rooms across the UK through ITV1 and ITVX.

This new multi-year agreement will also see future Oscars made available across ITV platforms and programming, including ITV1 and ITVX, ITVX social channels and news and magazine shows. ITVX recently attained the milestone of two billion streams and was named ‘Best On Demand Service’ at this year’s Edinburgh TV Festival.

Darren Nartey, Senior Acquisitions Manager for ITV and ITVX said in a statement:

“We are thrilled to be able to exclusively bring the Oscars to film fans all across the UK, furthering and complementing our commitment to films across our network. We already have a fantastic collection of over 250 feature films available on ITVX at any one time and are looking forward to sharing the movie-event of the year with our viewers.”

Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, also added:

“We could not be happier to partner with ITV in bringing the Oscars to viewers throughout the UK. The Oscars is a celebration of global cinema — recognizing films and film artists from around the world. ITV’s support of our international awards show is a testament to its deep devotion to the movies.”

In the United States, Disney has aired the Oscars live on ABC, and when Sky decided it wouldn’t be renewing its deal to continue showing the Oscars, there was a possibility that Disney could have shifted it to Disney+, but it looks like Disney decided to shop the event around to other platforms, which will bring in some additional revenue for the company.  Due to the Oscars taking place overnight in LA, the viewership in the UK is generally much lower.

This year’s event was only watched by around 95,000 people live in the UK, due to it airing in the middle of the night.  But with the Oscars now being available on a free platform, it may attract more viewers, though viewership for award ceremonies has generally been decreasing yearly.

The 96th Oscars will air exclusively on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK on March 10th, 2024.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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