The 83rd Academy Awards are available to watch online. But only for a price, and not everyone is invited to the party. There is, however, one rather large chunk of the population not being served: everyone resident outside of the good old United States of America.
Oscars 2011 Online
The 83rd Academy Awards is exclusive to ABC on normal, old-skool television. It is, however, possible to watch the 2011 Oscars online, if you’re in the U.S. and don’t mind paying.
Oscar All Access is available on Oscar.com for those who want the full experience from red carpet to afterparty. For the princely sum of $4.99 this premium experience gives you multiple live cameras of the action as well as extra footage not being shown on TV.
An iOS app called Backstage Pass for those lucky enough to own an iPhone or iPad owners is available for just $0.99 and offers almost all of the same features and content.
However, neither of these options is open to anyone outside of the U.S. and its territories.
Outside The U.S.
So what choices do I, as a Hollywood film fan who lives outside of the U.S., have left open to me? Nothing legal, that’s for sure. Which means I’m left to search around on Megavideo and Megaupload for clips to watch before they’re taken down, or Ustream and Justin.tv for illicit broadcasts of the ceremony.
Which is a ridiculous situation for someone who is willing to pay for the privilege of watching something online. By not making the show available through official channels, the people who run the Academy Awards are pushing people to find alternatives which aren’t 100 percent legal.
Conclusions
Would it really be so hard to set up and license an online stream of the 2011 Oscars for a worldwide audience? As a Brit I haven’t even got the opportunity to watch it on normal television as it’s not being shown live at all, and a highlights show is tucked away on an obscure cable channel.
This is yet another example of the power of online video not being utilized to its fullest potential. No wonder piracy is so rife.
