Sunday night is Hollywood’s biggest night of year—the 89th annual Academy Awards. The ceremony will air Feb. 26 on ABC in the US, beginning at 8:30pm eastern time.
Last year, 34 million people in the US watched the live event, which marked an 8-year low for the awards show. But it was still the most-watched entertainment program of the year, outside of sports. Millions more also tune in from around the world.
This year’s viewers will be watching to see whether critical darling La La Land, the art-house masterpiece Moonlight, or perhaps the box-office hit Hidden Figures win best picture; how host Jimmy Kimmel handles his monologue in these charged times; and whether any award winners will get political on the podium, as actress Meryl Streep did during the Golden Globes.
Already, the directors behind the five foreign-language nominees have released a statement against the “climate of fanaticism and nationalism we see today in the US,” and at least one—Asghar Farhadi of The Salesman—will not attend the ceremony. Donald Trump, who’s taken it upon himself to critique the Oscars in the past, may also tweet alongside the broadcast. (White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said he does not expect the US president to watch, but we shall see.)
The red carpet begins at 7pm ET. Here’s how to watch:
In the US
If you have cable or satellite TV, you can catch the broadcast on ABC. Otherwise, you can use an HD antenna to watch the ABC broadcast free, over the air.
If neither of those options work for you, ABC will also live stream the show on ABC.com, the ABC app (for iOS, Android, Amazon Fire, Roku, and XBox 360 devices), and through streaming-TV providers including SlingTV, Sony Vue, and DirecTV Now. But there are a few caveats:
- Only pay-TV subscribers can access the feed. Here’s a full list of participating providers from ABC.
- Sony Vue and DirecTV Now customers can also access the stream using their credentials. (SlingTV customers cannot.)
- Viewers can only access the stream from certain parts of the country. It will be available to cable- and streaming-TV subscribers in eight US cities: Chicago, Illinois; Fresno, California; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; New York, New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina; and San Francisco, California.
- An DirecTV satellite customers must be in these US regions: Albuquerque, New Mexico; Boston, Massachusetts; Ft. Smith/Fayetteville, Arkansas; Jackson, Mississippi; Kansas City, Missouri; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Monterey-Salinas, California; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Omaha, Nebraska; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Portland-Auburn, Maine; Savannah, Georgia; and West Palm Beach, Florida.
Everywhere else
To watch the US broadcast, you can use VPN software to make your device appear to be located within the country. Then, you can use the solutions above to stream. This might also be a good option for people in the US who are outside of the participating markets.
Otherwise, the Hollywood Reporter has a good list of TV networks that will broadcast the awards ceremony around the world. Here’s a sampling:
- Australia: The Nine network
- Canada: CTV and CTV Go
- Germany: Pro7
- India: Star India’s Star Movies and Star Movies Select HD
- South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean: TNT Latin America
- UK and Ireland: Sky Movies Oscars