MISS THE OSCARS? THEY’RE ONLINE NOW

The Oscars telecast is one of the few programs that the broadcasts can sell to advertisers with the assurance that they’re DVR-proof. People watch them live, commercials and all. That may be one reason why ABC waited until late on Sunday to issue a press release saying that the telecast will be available online beginning today (Monday) and remain available until midnight ET on Wednesday. “For the first time,” the announcement said, “viewers in the U.S. will be able to stream tonight’s Oscars show in its entirety across multiple platforms including ABC.com, the ABC Player app, and the free, ad-supported Hulu and Hulu Plus subscription service.” Viewers, however, will not be able to skip commercials, which will be 15-30 seconds in length and apparently fewer in number than those that aired during the live broadcast. Only six sponsors were listed: Blue Diamond, Diet Coke, Hyundai, JC Penney, Samsung and The University of Phoenix.