Hulu Experiences Technical Problems During Oscars Livestream
UPDATED: Thousands of Hulu subscribers reported problems accessing the streaming service during the Oscars on Sunday, which marked the first time the awards show was available via streaming. For some, the Hulu livestream dropped just before the night’s best picture winner was announced.
The 97th Academy Awards ceremony kicked off at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT, airing on ABC and livestreaming on Disney’s Hulu. But as of 4:24 p.m. PT, more than 34,000 users reported problems accessing Hulu, according to uptime monitoring site Downdetector.
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The official Hulu Support account on X posted on Sunday at 4:39 p.m. PT, “Having issues logging in? If so — we’re on it! Our team is actively investigating, and we hope to have things back up and running soon.” The Disney+ support account on X told subscribers that if they were having trouble accessing the Oscars livestream, “try restarting your app or checking for updates.”
At 5:48 p.m. PT, Hulu Support posted, “Our team has identified the issue and users affected should be able to log back in again soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.” According to Hulu, customers who were having issues “should be all set after rebooting your device.”
On Sunday, some Hulu customers were unable to log in at all. Others reported being able to log in to the service — but that when they tried to launch the Oscars livestream (or on-demand TV or movie titles), they only saw a blank screen. Meanwhile, on social media some users said they were seeing a Hulu error message that the Oscars telecast “isn’t available to watch in your location.”
In December, ABC and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences proudly announced that — for the first time — the Oscars would be livestreamed, available on Hulu alongside the awards show’s longtime TV home on ABC. The move promised to expand the audience for the annual ceremony. This year’s Academy Awards show also is slated to be available for on-demand viewing on Hulu as of Monday, March 3.
As of the end of 2024, Disney reported that Hulu had 53.6 million subscribers, a gain of 1.6 million for the last three months of the year.
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