Ratings for this weekend’s 91st Academy Awards broadcast may rebound from record lows in 2018 and 2017 as curious viewers check out the host-less broadcast to see if it is as big of a trainwreck as some pop culture mavens expect.
Even if the show’s viewership declines, Walt Disney’s ABC TV network, which is broadcasting the Oscars, will earn a tidy profit on the sales of commercials, which have fetched a record-high $2.6 million this year. That is a 23% increase from the $2.11 million the 30-second spots went for in 2018, according to Kantar Media.
ABC sells more ads on Oscar Sunday than on any other day of the year. The network recently announced that it had sold out of its advertising inventory. Major brands including Google, McDonald’s, Verizon, Walmart, Cadillac and Walt Disney are expected to advertise on the Academy Awards. According to Variety, Marriott International will get its own commercial break in a test being run by ABC of a new ad format. The network earned $149 million in ad revenue last year from the Oscars, an increase of nearly 40% from $108 million in 2014, according to Kantar.
“The Super Bowl is over. It’s mid-February,” Jeff Greenfield, chief operating officer of C3 Metrics, a media measurement company, said in an interview. “I am Walmart. My competitor is Amazon. Where can I go and compete against Amazon on what is essentially a global stage and get reach today? It’s the Oscars. … For a brand like a Walmart, they have to be there.”
Although the audience for the Oscars is shrinking, it is still huge. Last year’s broadcast was seen by more than 26 million people. That’s more than double the 13.3 million viewers who tuned in to the latest episode of CBS’s The Big Bang Theory, TV’s most popular sitcom. As the media environment becomes increasingly fractured, finding programs that appeal to mass audiences becomes increasingly difficult. Indeed, even the Super Bowl, usually the most-watched show of the year, hasn't been immune from declining audiences.
Advertisers can still get plenty of bang for their buck at the Academy Awards. Data from TV measurement and analytics firm EDO found that individuals who viewed ads during last year’s Oscars telecast were 77% more likely to engage online with the respective brands compared with viewers who saw a similar ad during the network’s regular prime time. This adds to the show’s appeal to marketers because Oscar fans are “engaged” with the content and hopefully will pay attention to their ads. Like other events, Oscar advertisers will need to reach consumers both on TVs and other "large screens" and on "small screens" like smartphones, where they comment on what’s going on during the show over social media.
Of course, buying commercials on the Oscars carries its own risks. The show's producers have a knack for spreading out 20 minutes of content over four hours. Efforts to crack down on ponderous speeches by celebrities have also flopped. Going without a wise-cracking host will be either a brilliant move or a total disaster.
