The 101st Oscars ceremony will be streamed live and free on YouTube, giving viewers in South Africa and around the world access to exclusive content.
Bulelwa Hoala
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on Wednesday, 17 December 2025, announced that it has signed a five-year deal with YouTube, granting the streaming platform exclusive global rights to the Oscars starting in 2029.
This means that the Oscars, including red carpet coverage, behind-the-scenes content, Governors Ball access and more, will be streamed live and free to over two billion viewers worldwide on YouTube.
According to the Academy, YouTube will make the Oscars more accessible to global audiences through features such as closed captioning and audio tracks available in multiple languages.
The partnership will give film fans worldwide access to a variety of Academy events and programmes, including the Governors Awards, the Oscars Nominations Announcement, the Oscars Nominees Luncheon, the Student Academy Awards, the Scientific and Technical Awards, Academy member and filmmaker interviews, film education programmes, podcasts, and more.
All of these will be available exclusively on the Oscars YouTube channel.
“The partnership will further extend to Google Arts & Culture, which will help bring selected Academy Museum exhibitions and programmes to a global online audience. It will also support the digitisation of parts of the Academy Collection — the largest film archive in the world, housing more than 52 million items — creating a central, worldwide destination for film enthusiasts,” the Academy said in a statement.
For the South African audience, this means that viewers will no longer need a premium DStv subscription to watch the Oscars ceremony live and legally.
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