Disney’s Hulu glitches during Oscars with thousands locked out

Walt Disney Co.’s Hulu streaming channel was experiencing technical difficulties during the Oscars ceremony on Sunday night, shutting out tens of thousands of paying customers during Hollywood’s signature event.

As the annual film awards show got underway just before 7pm Eastern time, people were unable to log on to Hulu, which is broadcasting the event for the first time. Some people reported finally getting in after more than an hour and a half of trying.

Internet outage site Downdetector reported as many as 34,145 people were complaining of site outages at about 7.30pm By around 8pm, some 17,000 people were still reporting issues.

The ceremony is also being broadcast on Disney’s ABC and people without a cable package can watch it on any live TV streaming service that carries the network, including Hulu + Live TV, Sling, Fubo and DirecTV Stream.

“Hulu owes me a damn refund right about now,” wrote one user on X. “All that advertisement about streaming the Oscars, only for the site not to work.”

A spokesperson for Disney said the company was “aware that some users are experiencing login issues. The team is actively investigating and working to resolve. Hope to be back up and running soon.”