According to recent reports, Disney’s ABC is struggling to sell commercials for the upcoming broadcast of the Academy Awards, where there is still available ad space just two weeks away from the show’s premiere. The Oscar’s ratings have struggled in recent years amid a growing disinterest from the general public toward the awards show.
As advertisers are demonstrating a lack of interest in the Oscars, many have blamed celebrities’ incessant progressive political statements and the woke agenda embraced by Hollywood as a possible cause for the steep decline in viewership. While the show has received a slight bump in ratings from recent box office hits such as “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water,” viewership is a far cry from what it used to be in the past couple of decades, where once was a must-see event or millions of Americans.
According to the show’s viewership data, under 19 million people watched the awards show last year, whereas ten years ago, the figure was over double that at 40 million. Going back to 1998, the show attracted a viewership audience of over 50 million.
Commercials at this year’s Oscars are selling from anywhere between $1.7 million and $2.2 million for a 30-second slot during the televised broadcast of the event. However, sources familiar with the matter claim ABC may have to settle for lower bids to fill the advertising space. The bids ABC is seeking are nothing compared to those at high-interest events, such as the Super Bowl, which sold slots for nearly $7 million.
Moreover, advertiser spending has declined substantially in recent years, where the 2023 broadcast saw a 15% drop to $117.4 million from 2022’s nearly $140 million. In terms of volume, ABC could only sell 51 ads in 2023 compared to 70 the prior year.
For years, conservatives have criticized various awards shows for essentially becoming a platform for leftist celebrities to voice their political agendas. However, the Oscars has taken things a step further and implemented “ridiculous” diversity rules for a film to qualify for Best Picture.
Last year, the Academy Awards announced a set of new standards that would apply to the Oscars next month, where a movie must meet two of the four standards to be considered for a Best Picture nomination. One of the qualifications calls for a lead or significant supporting character to be from an “underrepresented racial or ethnic group,” have a main storyline that applies to an underrepresented group, or feature at least 30% of the cast to come from at least two underrepresented groups.
Some have pointed out the absurd nature of this new diversity standard, where many classic films considered notable pieces of cinematic history would not even be considered to win the Best Picture Oscar in this day and age.
“It’s completely ridiculous,” one director told the New York Post. “I’m for diversity, but to make you cast certain types of people if you want to get nominated? That makes the whole process contrived. The person who is right for the part should get the part. Why should you be limited in your choices? But it’s the world we’re in. This is crazy.”
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