End of a once beautiful friendship for Sky and the Oscars

Irish hopes for next year’s Academy Awards may be rising fast thanks to Cillian Murphy’s eminently Oscar-worthy lead performance in Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, but it is unclear how film fans in Ireland will watch the March 2024 ceremony live following news that Sky, the holder of the British and Irish rights for the past 20 years, has opted not to renew its deal with rightsholder Disney.

This end to the once beautiful friendship between Sky and the Oscars falls short of surprise plot twist status. Sky, which used to reserve access to the ceremony for customers of its Sky Cinema channels, had exhibited clear signs of having grown less starry-eyed about the Oscars in recent years.

Last March, it didn’t bother keeping the live broadcast as a premium product, sticking it on Sky News, Sky Showcase and Sky Arts as well as on Sky Cinema. It also dispensed with the Alex Zane-led panel discussions that used to fill the many mid-ceremony ad breaks taken by the US broadcaster, Disney-owned ABC.

Sky has not commented on the reasons for its decision, but the obvious one is that the pursuit of a modest audience in the early hours of Monday morning – for a ceremony that is increasingly accused of having lost its old Hollywood lustre – simply isn’t worth splashing out for any more.

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Any Rupert Murdoch-related synergies have also long left the building. Whereas Murdoch once controlled a 39 per cent stake in Sky and also owned the studio 20th Century Fox, he is now in possession of neither, with Sky fully owned by NBCUniversal’s parent Comcast and 20th Century Fox rebranded as the Disney-owned 20th Century Studios.

Disney is now seeking a new home for the Oscars in this part of the world, raising the possibility that some or most viewers in the Republic of Ireland could be cut off from a UK-only broadcasting deal. The prospect of an exclusive streaming deal may be more logical – indeed, there is nothing to stop Disney selling the rights to itself and making the live streaming of the awards the property of Disney Plus.

In any case, an unusual level of suspense hangs over what will be the 96th Academy Awards regardless of where it ends up: if the twin US actors’ and writers’ strikes are not resolved, there will be no ceremony for anyone to show.

[ ‘People treated me like a star but I was basically unemployed’: Irish actors seek better pay deal amid Hollywood strike ]