YouTube fans hoping to get to the sweet nutmeat of the Oscars without having to digest the massive, fibrous husk that is the rest of the broadcast are out of luck. Variety reports that the Academy has compelled the video-sharing website to pull popular excerpts of actual, entertaining portions of the broadcast, including the opening monologue and Will Ferrell and Beyonce’s singing performances.
Well, that’s understandable, right? Broadcasters want to protect their revenue. And they want to capture the online audience by posting those clips themselves, so new and repeat viewers can watch and e-mail the clips, thus generating new fans and brand loyalty, no? Um, no. The verboten clips, it turns out, are not available at oscar.com, though you can watch the extended acceptance speeches on the Thank-You Cam (I dare you!) or a five-minute highlight reel selected by the academy. Which will eventually, ahem, disappear.
Way to lure back that under-35 market, Academy! I hereby take back everything I ever said about the Oscars being staid and behind the times.