Disney and Hulu Respond After Oscars Streaming Glitches Affect Viewers

Due to streaming glitches, Hulu didn’t always bring viewers the best picture in its Oscars night debut.

The 97th Oscars on Sunday marked the first time Hulu aired the Academy Awards. After years of linear resistance, Hollywood’s pre-eminent awards show returned to ABC last night along with livestreams on multiple digital platforms, including Hulu, Fubo, and AT&T TV.

However, things didn’t get off to the smoothest of starts. According to multiple reports—and personal anecdotes from ADWEEK staff—Hulu had multiple glitches on the night, including viewers having issues while logging in and the stream being interrupted or ending early ahead of categories such as Best Actress and Best Picture.

After several viewers aired their grievances across social media, Hulu was eventually able to fix its log-in issues, which The Hollywood Reporter noted happened more than two hours into the event.

The streamer addressed the glitch on its support channel on X, saying it “has identified the issue,” with affected users being able to successfully get back on the service.

“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the streamer added.

Our team has identified the issue and users affected should be able to log back in again soon. We apologize for the inconvenience.

— Hulu Support (@hulu_support) March 3, 2025

In addition, some Hulu users also saw the stream cut off early. Unfortunately, the issues happened ahead of major categories, including Best Actress, and resulted in a screen where Hulu thanked viewers for watching well before the show had ended, leading news outlets to join in on memes about the situation.

On its Disney+ help channel on X, the company addressed the glitch, noting users could restart the app to get back into the show.

Thank you for reaching out! The 97th Oscars will be broadcast live on ABC-TV and are streaming on Hulu starting at 7 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT. If you are having trouble accessing it, try restarting your app or checking for updates. Let us know if you need further assistance!

— Disney+ Help (@DisneyPlusHelp) March 3, 2025

Hulu did not immediately reply to ADWEEK’s request for comment.

It remains to be seen if the glitches affected the show’s ratings, with Nielsen numbers likely coming out later in the day on Monday. However, even before the addition of Hulu and streaming, the Oscars numbers had been trending up in recent years.

After falling to record lows in 2021, the show rose to reach 16.6 million viewers in 2022 and 18.8 million viewers in 2023. Meanwhile, 2024’s ceremony, which included Barbenheimer magic, ticked up again to 19.5 million.

Ahead of the show airing, Academy CEO Bill Kramer spoke with ADWEEK about the ceremony coming to Hulu for the first time. And as ADWEEK’s Ethan Alter noted, the Oscars CEO was expecting ratings to defy gravity.

“I think we’re going to reach a new audience this year,” Kramer said. “We’re very excited about that.”