Why Oscars ads are selling at a record high despite the steady decline of ratings
- Academy Award ratings have been slipping for years, but ad buy prices are on the rise.
- ABC is selling 30-second ads for the 2019 Oscars at a record-high $3 million.
- CNN media critic Brian Lowry explains to Business Insider why ABC is still bullish on the Oscars.
It's one of the great mysteries going on with television right now: advertisers are dishing out more money than ever before to get ads on shows that fewer people are watching than ever before.
And the Academy Awards is no different.
It's still the granddaddy of all award shows, taking in more viewers than the Golden Globes, Grammys, and Emmys - by a long shot.
But at the same time, the Oscars ceremony, which airs on ABC, is being watched by fewer people.
The show has been on a steady decline since 2014, and last year only brought in 26.5 million viewers. That's still more than the other big award shows, but for the Oscars it marked the least-watched show in its history.
But there's a reason ABC executives aren't running around town in a panic.
Though the show's ratings aren't anywhere near the numbers it had in its glory days of the 1990s, when it could do 40-million-plus in its sleep - 1998's show was its zenith with a record high of over 57 million viewers - since 2016, the cost of 30-second ad spots during the telecast has consistently gone up.
In 2016, the same year ABC extended its contract with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to air the Oscars until 2028, 30-second spots went for $1.72 million. In 2017, they went for $1.91 million; last year, they went for $2 million; and this year, they are selling for $3 million.
If fewer people are watching the Oscars, how is ABC pulling this off?
It turns out a network with a live show is still very appealing to brands.
"If you're a sponsor and you're trying to reach any kind of mass appeal, you sort of grab at the platforms that can still do that," CNN media critic Brian Lowry told Business Insider. "The Oscars is in the same way that sports have an advantage, if you are really into the Oscars, you don't want to DVR it and watch the next day. I wouldn't be surprised to see Netflix, Amazon, or HBO ponying up for some ads during the Oscars because to launch your new spring shows it's going to be one of the last big platforms to reach a lot of people."
And despite the low ratings, the Oscars are still the Super Bowl of award shows, especially for the female demographic. So women's brands are still very much into getting time on the show, especially the red carpet coverage.
How long this phenomenon of low ratings/high ad sales will last is hard to say, but Lowry said there's now a new saying among the network executives.
"Flat ratings is the new up," he said. "If they can hold how things then that's a victory."
The Oscars air on ABC February 24.