The four-year agreement applies worldwide, including the United States, and YouTube has purchased the rights to broadcast both the gala itself and the stars' entrances on the red carpet and what happens backstage.
The fact that the film world's largest gala is moving from linear television to online broadcasts represents a major symbolic shift for the gala, which does not allow films that have only been streamed to be nominated.
For many years, the Oscars were a major audience magnet for the television company ABC, which has broadcast the event every year since 1975. In 1998, when “Titanic” won eleven statuettes, 55 million Americans were attracted to watch the gala.
Viewership has since declined, and in March of this year, Variety reported that the show attracted just over 18 million viewers in the United States. However, that show was also streamed on Disney-owned platforms. According to ABC, younger viewers were choosing mobile phones and computer screens instead, an audience that the show is now looking to reach.
YouTube is the channel, digital or linear, that attracts the most viewers in the US, according to figures from the Nielsen measurement company. In May, YouTube had 12.5 percent of all television viewing in the country, the linear television channels together had just over 20 percent.
