When Oscar organisers unveiled their promotional campaign, 'You're Invited', they weren't kidding - at least where Web audiences are concerned.
This year, more than ever, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has loaded up its Facebook page, Twitter account and Web site with ways for people to watch the world's top film awards and all the festivities that take place around it.
The goal, Academy members say, is to make the glitzy Hollywood telecast feel more inclusive of everyday moviegoers and capture the attention of younger fans with one hand on their cellphone and the other on a laptop.
"We know that, more and more, people watching TV are also engaging with some other device. We want that second device to have related, complementary content on it," said Ric Robertson, executive administrator at the Academy and the man behind the Oscar show's social media outreach.
"The idea is to pull back the curtain, and let viewers get a real sense of what Oscar night is," said Robertson.
It is no secret that in recent years, viewership has been eroding for the Oscars telecast - which is annually the second most popular TV show in the US - as well as for movies, in general.
Younger audiences are finding more ways to entertain themselves - social networking, video games, texting, and the like - than going to movies.
The total number of tickets sold in US and Canadian theatres fell 5% in 2010 to 1.34 billion. Box office revenues were flat compared to 2009 at $10.6 billion, and average movie ticket prices rose to $7.89 from $7.50.
Where the Oscar telecast is concerned, last year's show was the most watched in five years with just under 42 million viewers, but a large part of that was due to the popularity of best film nominee Avatar, the biggest box office hit ever.
The telecast generally sees viewership increase when popular movies are up for awards. The high-water mark was 1998 when 57 million people tuned in to watch smash hit Titanic win best film. The low point was 2008 when about 32 million tuned in for a victory by No Country for Old Men.
So, in an effort to put more eyes on Hollywood's A-list movie stars, the Academy has adopted an aggressive approach to showing scenes of stars on the red carpet, backstage after the TV cameras are no longer following them, and even offering a glimpse of their personal lives with Oscar's tweeting moms.
On Twitter, not only will the Academy's Web site be active (
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