And, action! Oscars to make their live stream debut on the web, apps

sincity · February 27, 2014

The Oscar broadcast will be live streamed in its entirety this Sunday, from the celebrity-filled red carpet to the Best Picture winner reveal seemingly a dozen hours later.

The Ellen Degeneres-hosted 86th Annual Academy Awards mark the first time the show is being made available to internet users.

However, as ABC noted in its press release today, the live streaming functionality will be limited to certain cable providers and, on top of that, just eight cities.

The lucky Oscar live streaming A-listers are in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno.

Live streaming requires Comcast, Cablevision, Cox, Charter, Midcontinent, Verizon FiOS, Google Fiber or AT&T U-verse.

Watch ABC supported devices

The Watch ABC video player can be accessed on the web via websites Oscars.com, ABC.com and WatchABC.com.

The mobile app is free to download on iOS and most Android devices through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, respectively.

In addition to these smartphones and tablets, Kindle Fire slates will also be able to access the live stream through the Amazon Appstore's Watch ABC app.

Windows Phone 8 isn't supported, but ABC does have a compatible Windows 8 app that can be downloaded through Microsoft's Windows Store.

Finally, there's a Watch ABC app available within Apple TV, but ABC hasn't listed that as part of its Oscar live streaming lineup.

We sent an inquiry to the Disney-owned channel to find out if Apple TV will make the cut, but we may have to wait until it's showtime to determine if it works.