text: The Academy Awards is the world's longest-running awards show televised live from the U.S.to all time zones in North America and worldwide, and gathers billions of viewers elsewhere throughout the world.The Oscars were first televised in 1953 by NBC, which continued to broadcast the event until 1960, when ABC took over, televising the festivities (including the first color broadcast of the event in 1966) through 1970.NBC regained the rights for five years then ABC resumed broadcast duties in 1976 and its current contract with the Academy runs through 2028.The Academy has also produced condensed versions of the ceremony for broadcast in international markets (especially those outside of the Americas) in more desirable local timeslots.The ceremony was broadcast live internationally for the first time via satellite since 1970, but only two South American countries, Chile and Brazil, purchased the rights to air the broadcast.By that time, the television rights to the Academy Awards had been sold in 50 countries.A decade later, the rights were already being sold to 60 countries, and by 1984, the TV rights to the Awards were licensed in 76 countries.The ceremonies were moved up from late March/early April to late February, since 2004, to help disrupt and shorten the intense lobbying and ad campaigns associated with Oscar season in the film industry.Another reason was because of the growing TV ratings success coinciding with the NCAA basketball tournament, which would cut into the Academy Awards audience.(In 1976 and 1977, ABC's regained Oscars were moved from Tuesday to Monday and went directly opposite NBC's NCAA title game.) The earlier date is also to the advantage of ABC, as it now usually occurs during the highly profitable and important February sweeps period.Some years, the ceremony is moved into the first Sunday of March to avoid a clash with the Winter Olympic Games.