ITV Oscars coverage peaks at 1.1 million viewers

ITV’s free-to-air coverage of the 2024 Oscars ceremony drew 800,000 viewers and peaked at 1.1 million viewers in the UK, compared to Sky’s 270,000 the previous year.

Jonathan Ross (Source: ITV)

ITV was named the exclusive broadcaster for the Oscars which was held on March 10. The UK pubcaster took over the rights to the prestigious film award ceremony from Sky. The Comcast-owned leading pay TV provider had previously broadcasted the Oscar ceremony for 20 years.

The Oscars was shown exclusively on linear channel ITV1 and streaming platform ITVX. Celebrity presenter Jonathan Ross fronted ITV’s Oscars coverage, with a one-off special show following the 96^th Oscars edition. It marked the first time the event was free-to-air for in the UK for almost two decades.

As part of its Oscar-themed content offering a collection of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated films was also available to stream on AVOD service ITVX. The PSB also launched a dedicated Oscars FAST channel on its streaming platform. In total, the broadcaster reported its overall Oscars programming across linear channel ITV1 and ITVX reached 5.2 million viewers.

In January, ITVX recorded 315 million streams for the month alone and a 39% rise in streams the first week of the new year. It marked the streaming platform’s biggest streaming month as of year, driven by shows such as Mr Bates vs the Post Office and Love Island All Stars as well as its FA Cup coverage.

The most recent FA cup game featuring Manchester United and Liverpool on March 17 also attracted 8.6 million viewers on ITV, the pubcaster said it was the biggest audience of the year yet. The FA Cup semi-final match where Coventry City goes against Manchester United is set to feature on ITV1 on Sunday, April 21.