Oscars Go High Tech

AP

Oscar Awards

The Oscars are the second-biggest TV event of the year (after the Super Bowl), but this year they're truly a multi-screen event.

This year the Oscars are going high tech, a push to get a bigger, younger audience.

For the first time the behind-the-scenes and after-party of the Academy Award ceremony will be streamed live online to Oscars.comand ABC.com, giving movie fans a more in-depth experience on their laptops than they'd get on the flat screen in their living room.

And if you want more access you can buy it. A 99 cent IPad and iPhone "Oscars Backstage Pass"app includes live footage from cameras on the red carpet and backstage during the show at the Kodak Theater. A $4.99 "all access" app includes more live streams, including the governor's ball, and the option to switch between multiple cameras.

Those are the official Oscar apps, organized by the Academy, but there's really an Oscar app for everyone. If you want factoids about the nominees and films there's "Vanity Fair: Oscar Edition." Fashionistas can click on E! Network's "Live from the Red Carpet."Those two are free, while a game about Oscar trivia, "Obsessed with Hollywood,"will run you $1.99 on the Itunes store.

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And millions will follow -and interact with- the event on Twitter.

ABC and the Academy are soliciting red carpet questions via Twitter, asking users to use a particular hash tag.

And this year not only could we see tweets from host James Franco, who just joined Twitter, but we'll definitely see Tweets from other attendees.

The Oscars has enlisted "mominees" — the moms of nominees — to tweet through the event.

There's no question that more people will watch the Oscars on multiple screens than ever. And the mass numbers of Tweets are expected to drive ratings higher. What better way to make an evening alone on the couch a communal experience than sharing it with a thousand strangers on Twitter. It's no coincidence that the Super Bowl drew record ratings and the record number of Tweets ever sent during a sporting event.

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