Hulu identifies 'issue' limiting users trying to watch the 2025 Oscars

(NEXSTAR) — For the first time ever, the Academy Awards are streaming on Hulu. Unfortunately, some users reported issues accessing the service just as the award show began.

Shortly before 9 p.m. ET — roughly two hours after the show started — the streaming service said it had "identified the issue and users affected should be able to log back in again soon."

"We apologize for the inconvenience," read a post on X from Hulu's support team.

Over 30,000 user-reported outages were being tracked by Downdetector as of roughly 7:15 p.m. ET, just after the Oscars began.

Hulu users on X said they were unable to get through a page that alerted them to the company's new subscriber agreement. Others said the streaming service was crashing with notices that the awards show was not available to be viewed in their location.

In response to one such user, Hulu's support account said it has "all hands on deck working to get this behavior cleared up." Responding to another post, the company said it was "currently investigating this behavior with a high priority."

In a separate post just before 7:40 p.m. ET, the Hulu Support page wrote, "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."

Shortly before 8:45 p.m. ET, Hulu Support responded to a post on X that its team had "made an adjustment, which should clear things up on your end." The company then encouraged the user to reboot.

As of 8 p.m. ET, user issues reported on Downdetector began to decline. Shortly before 9 p.m. ET, issue reports had dropped below 3,000.

Users did, however, encounter another hiccup: as the show ran past its 10:30 p.m. ET runtime, Hulu's live event ended. It wasn't immediately clear if the event would return in time.

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