ITV Becomes UK Home Of The Oscars
ITV today announced, as part of a new multi-year deal with Disney Entertainment, that it will be unrolling the red carpet to homes across the UK as the exclusive partner for the 96th Oscars, which will take place in 2024… hopefully…
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.
“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,” said Darren Nartey, Senior Acquisitions Manager for ITV and ITVX. “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.”
It’s unfortunate timing for ITV, through no fault of their own, that 2024 will be the first time they will be broadcasting the Oscars. The 96th ceremony is currently scheduled for March next year and should broadcast and stream live from the Dolby Theatre at Ovation Hollywood into living rooms across the UK through ITV1 and ITVX. The only wrinkle in that plan is the current ongoing strike action by the actor’s and writer’s unions in Hollywood… Whilst the Oscars could go ahead regardless of whether the strike has ended at that point – and we, and all of Hollywood, HOPE they have resolved it by March next year – if it is still ongoing, things will be… interesting…
Under SAG-AFTRA strike rules, actors are not allowed to promote any projects which were produced under SAG-AFTRA contracts for “struck” companies, past, present, or future. That would likely include a lot of the nominated movies, meaning the actors would be very unlikely to turn up and accept an award at an industry ceremony. It’s quite possible the Ocsars could go ahead without the actors (and possibly the writers) there, it would make for a very different night. It is also likely that anyone who is not in those unions, but supports them (directors, producers, designers, composers etc…), will either not show in solidarity, or show up purely to make statements in support of the actors and writers.
For the past 20 years, the Oscars had aired in the UK under a deal with Sky, however, the broadcaster opted not to renew the rights earlier this year, putting them back on the open market. In a number of territories around the globe, Disney (who controls the broadcast rights) has retained them for themselves, however, in the UK, they have opted to sell them on to ITV instead.
“We could not be happier to partner with ITV in bringing the Oscars to viewers throughout the UK,” adds Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. “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.”
The 96th Oscars is currently scheduled to air exclusively on ITV1 and ITVX in the UK on Sunday, 10th March 2024.
