When U.K. public service broadcaster ITV unveiled last summer it had snagged the rights to the Oscars broadcast from Comcast-owned Sky, which had simulcast the show for almost 20 years, it caused quite a stir.
Not only will the ceremony be free-to-air for the first time in nearly two decades, but ITV soon unveiled a host of extras — including a 90-minute red carpet pre-show hosted by Ross King, a wrap-around show produced by ITV Studios Daytime and hosted by Jonathan Ross plus a range of streaming highlights, such as a strand of Oscar-winning and Oscar-nominated movies, best speeches from years past and behind-the-scenes clips direct from the the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. Last month, the nominations were also broadcast live on the network’s streamer ITVX.
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“The Oscars is the ultimate in event telly and we’re thrilled to be unlocking an iconic night for U.K. film fans across our free-to-air platforms,” ITV’s head of entertainment commissioning, Katie Rawcliffe, tells Variety.
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There will also be plenty of content for viewers the morning after as the festivities carry over into ITV’s daytime programming, including “Good Morning Britain” and “This Morning” — plus, of course, a chance to re-watch the ceremony itself. “If you can’t stay up into the early hours — and we very much hope people will — but if you can’t, then you can catch up on it the following day on ITVX,” says ITVX managing editor Craig Morris.
Morris, a self-confessed film buff, was directly involved in the negotiations to bring the Academy Awards to ITV — a deal he describes as a “long-term agreement that’s got quite a few years to run.” Ahead of the ceremony on March 10, he spoke to Variety about why the network threw its hat in the ring to be the U.K. home of the Oscars and what viewers can expect on the night.
Why did you decide it was time to bring the Oscars back to U.K. viewers without a paywall?
Sometimes working in editorial, you spot an opportunity, and the Oscars was an opportunity for us to take something and bring it to a much bigger audience. We feel that the Oscars is a gem that everybody talks about, but because it has been behind a paywall, maybe not as many people have seen it [in the U.K.] that could have done over these last two decades. So we want to play our part in getting it to a bigger audience.
And movies very quickly became an important part of ITVX [which launched 14 months ago]. At the moment, we have over 300 films on the service and they’ve done very well. The other thing is that ITV has got a long tradition of hosting big event TV. That’s everything from “Love Island” or “Big Brother” or “I’m a Celebrity,” through to the Brit Awards and sporting occasions. So I think ITV is always on the lookout for big events to add into the content mix. We’re always looking for properties that will deliver a big audience; lovely topical things that are almost agenda-setting when it comes to the news.
What was the bidding process like to get the rights from Disney – was it purely about the money?
No. Increasingly, people don’t just want to know what money you’re prepared to pay — it’s part of the discussion, obviously — I think they want to know, “What are you going to do with this?” I’m sure what was attractive was we’ve got a big home for it across streaming and linear. They obviously wanted to know what we wanted to do, but we were full of ideas. Not only is it the build-up, and then it’s the show and people can catch up the next day, but any year if you turn on ITV the day after the Oscars on “Good Morning Britain” and “This Morning” or other daytime shows, they’re all talking about it. So there’s great opportunity to get those shows even more involved in it this year. They’ll have extra access because we’re a host broadcaster. We’ve met with Disney and we’ve had meetings with the Academy to really try and get under the skin of what they want to achieve with it so we can reflect it in this territory.
And are you able to say how much you paid for it?
No, we don’t talk about things like that. But we’re really delighted to get it.
The whole package you’ve put together really does make it feel like event television.
You can do a lot with the Oscars. We’ve got Oscar-nominated films, we’ve got Oscar-winning films, we’ve got a channel, you can go and stream it. We’ve got some of the best speeches from the past and as the event gets closer, you’ll see more and more Oscar-themed stuff. There’ll be some people who just come for the main event and that’s fine. But a lot of these events — and the Oscars is no different — attract superfans as well as just fans, and if we can do something extra for the superfans, then that’s brilliant. Everybody wins.
Jonathan Ross is one of those superfans. When you told him the Oscars were coming to ITV, what was his reaction?
I think it’s fair to say he’s really enthusiastic about doing this. He’s a bit like us. I’m a mad film fan and one of the reasons I wanted ITV to do this is I watch the Oscars every year. I do an Oscars party — we stay up all night — I absolutely adore the Oscars. And I was feeling more people would do this if it was on a free-to-air channel, if people built up to it a bit more and created more of a buzz. And what you want is someone who feels the same hosting it. And Jonathan is all of those things.
Will he be broadcasting from L.A. or London?
He’s going to be in the U.K. in a custom studio. There’s always a discussion and ultimately it’s down to the production team to decide where the presenters are located. You’ve got this very glossy show coming live from L.A., but it is a bit of a circus — and Ross King will be in the middle of that circus for us on the red carpet — but it’s not probably the best environment or conducive to producing the best shows for the U.K., because obviously [the Academy’s] priority is the big main show. I think particularly for our first year we want to be in a very controlled environment, where we can put the best show together for U.K. audiences. And it just so happens that this year that solution is doing it in a studio in London with guests. It’s going to be a really slick, fun show. They’ve got some really fun ideas, actually.
It sounds perfect for British audiences, who maybe take the ceremony less seriously than American ones.
What you want is to feel like it’s almost a group of people you’d love to go down the pub with talking about what they’ve just seen in the last segment of the show. You’re gonna see all of the [ceremony], it’s all live, there’s no delay or anything so none of it will be censored, which is quite exciting. Obviously Jimmy Kimmel has presented it before but you never know, there’s always some surprising twists and turns and I think part of the fun is watching it — and then it will be seeing what Jonathan and his guests make of it all.
Do you have any predictions about who’ll go home with a golden statue?
I’m going to leave that to the experts because I promise you, I always get them all wrong. We’re very fortunate to be launching this year with the Oscars on ITV because of stuff like “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer,” and then you’ve got those more indie films like “Poor Things.” It’s a really nice mix of indie and big blockbuster movies and it’s lovely to see them all represented in the nominations. So I think it’s going to be a particularly exciting year to watch the show.
This interview has been edited and condensed.