LOS ANGELES — For the film industry, which was already
fighting to hold its place at the center of American culture, the
Nielsen
ratings for Sunday night’s 93rd Academy Awards came as a body blow: About 9.85
million people watched the telecast, a 58 percent plunge from last year’s
record low.
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Among adults 18 to 49, the demographic that many advertisers
pay a premium to reach, the Oscars suffered an even steeper 64 percent decline,
according to preliminary data from Nielsen released on Monday. Nielsen’s final
numbers are expected Tuesday and will include out-of-home viewing and some
streaming statistics.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences declined to
comment.
The academy had been bracing for a sharp ratings drop. Award
shows have been struggling mightily during the pandemic, and the Oscars have
been on a downward trajectory for years. But some academy officials had hoped
Sunday’s telecast still might crack 10 million viewers and attract as many as
15 million.
Humiliating? Certainly. But hundreds of millions of dollars
are also at stake.
Under a long-term licensing deal with ABC, which is owned by
Disney, the academy stands to collect roughly $900 million between 2021 and
2028 for worldwide broadcasting rights to the Oscars. The funds are crucial to
the academy’s operations, especially when it is spending to open a museum in
Los Angeles. But some of that money is threatened. Payments to the academy
include a guarantee and then revenue sharing if certain ad sales thresholds are
reached.
So far, ABC has been able to keep ad rates high because of
the fragmentation of television viewing. Oscars night may be a shadow of its
former self, but so is the rest of network television; the ceremony still ranks
as one of the largest televised events of the year. Google, General Motors,
Rolex and Verizon spent an estimated $2 million for each 30-second spot in
Sunday’s telecast, only a slight decline from last year’s pricing, according to
media buyers. ABC said Thursday that it had sold out of its inventory.
ABC does not guarantee an audience size to Oscar
advertisers, thus removing any potential for so-called make-goods (additional
commercial time at a later date) to compensate for low ratings.
Some people in the entertainment industry, whether out of
optimism or denial or both, believe award shows are going through a temporary
downturn — that declining ratings for stalwarts like the Emmys (a 30-year low)
and the Screen Actors Guild Awards (down 52 percent) reflect the pandemic, not
a paradigm shift. Without live audiences, the telecasts have been drained of
their energy. The big studios also postponed major movies, leaving this year’s
awards circuit to little-seen art films.
The most-nominated movie on Sunday was “Mank.” It received
10 nods. Surveys before the show indicated most Americans had never even heard
of it, much less watched it, despite its availability on Netflix. “Mank,” a
love letter to Old Hollywood from David Fincher, won for production design and
cinematography.
Still, the Oscars have been on a slide since 1998, when 57.2
million people tuned in to see “Titanic” sweep to best-picture victory.
Many factors have been undercutting the ratings, starting
with the delivery route. Old broadcast networks like ABC are no longer that
relevant, especially to young people. (One awards show that is growing are the
Game Awards, which celebrate the best video games of the year and are streamed
on platforms like YouTube, Twitch and Twitter.)
In many cases, analysts say, the telecasts are too long for
contemporary attention spans. The ceremony Sunday was one of the shorter ones
in recent years, and it still ran 3 hours, 19 minutes. Why slog through all
that when you can catch snippets on Twitter?
Increasingly, the ceremonies are less about entertainment
honors and more about civic issues and progressive politics, which inevitably
annoys half the audience. Regina King, a previous Oscar winner and the director
of “One Night in Miami,” acknowledged as much at the top of the show.
“I know that a lot of you people at home want to reach for
your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you,” she said. “But
as the mother of a Black son, I know the fear that so many live with, and no
amount of fame or fortune changes that.” A half-dozen honorees followed her
lead and spoke about issues like racial justice and police brutality.
The academy itself has played a role in the show’s demise,
bungling efforts to make it more relevant (hastily announcing a new category
honoring achievement in “popular” films and then backtracking) and refusing
ABC’s plea to reduce the number of Oscars presented during the show.
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