Hulu crashed during the livestream of the 97th Academy Awards on Sunday, leaving fans disappointed and unable to follow along in real time for some of the biggest awards of the night.
For some users, the outage occurred during the best actress segment. Several Hulu users said the livestream went dark for them while Emma Stone was onstage introducing the award, before listing off the nominees.
"This evening, we experienced technical and livestream issues on Hulu which impacted some Oscars viewers," a Disney spokesperson said in a statement to Business Insider. "We apologize for the experience and will make a full replay of the event available as soon as possible."
Earlier in the night, the Disney-owned streaming platform experienced technical issues as well.
According to DownDetector.com, some 33,650 customers reported experiencing problems with login and video streaming beginning around 7 p.m. ET. — just as the awards show commenced.
"Our team has identified the issue and users affected should be able to log back in again soon. We apologize for the inconvenience," Hulu wrote in a post on X addressing the issue.
Our team has identified the issue and users affected should be able to log back in again soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.
About an hour later, the company replied to the initial post and offered an update on the outage.
Thanks so much for hanging in there! Our team took the necessary steps to resolve this, so you should be all set after rebooting your device. We appreciate your patience!
"Thanks so much for hanging in there!" Hulu wrote. "Our team took the necessary steps to resolve this, so you should be all set after rebooting your device. We appreciate your patience!"
It was Hulu's debut streaming the Oscars and a setback for its standing in the streaming wars.
Live broadcasts are particularly attractive to advertisers looking to reach large audiences amid the decline of traditional linear viewing. Disney had said last week that it had sold out of all of its Oscars ad inventory, with brands including Rolex, T-Mobile, and Starbucks purchasing spots. The awards ceremony and red carpet show also aired on ABC in the US and internationally on Disney+ and other broadcast outlets.
Hulu rival Netflix has been bolstering its live offering lately, streaming live sports, WWE, comedy, and the Screen Actors Guild Awards. Some of its streams have also suffered from technical glitches, including the highly anticipated boxing match between Mike Tyson and YouTuber Jake Paul last year.
Livestreaming can present complex technical challenges, particularly during viewership spikes, as providers manage increased bandwidth demands to distribute their programming across millions of different devices and networks.
"We were stressing our own technology, we were pushing every ISP in the world right to the limits of their own capacity, we were stressing the limits of the internet itself," Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said last year of the Tyson-Paul fight.
Alex DeGroote, an independent tech and media analyst, said the incident didn't cause lasting damage to the Netflix brand. While the Hulu outage will have been frustrating for viewers, this incident will likely blow over, too, he told BI.
Hulu has been on an upward path recently, growing subscribers and helping to boost profitability within Disney's entertainment streaming unit, which also includes Disney+. This was a reversal from the division reporting an operating loss a year ago.
"Live events will be a key driver for all streamers going forward," said DeGroote. "This requires massive capacity in serving infrastructure and additional investment. It's a strategic challenge for an on-demand platform. "
March 3, 2025 — The story has been updated to include a statement from Disney and comments from media industry analyst Alex DeGroote.
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