Hulu's first Oscars stream locked out viewers as the show went live

Hulu users in the U.S. faced a major outage on Sunday 2 March 2025, just as the Oscars went live, The Economic Times reported. It was the first time Hulu had broadcast the ceremony. Downdetector recorded 34,145 complaints about Hulu by 7:30 p.m. ET and an hour later about 17,000 users still could not access the service. Many received a 'missing error JSON structure' message, which suggested a server-side failure, and users reported being logged out and then unable to log back in.

Disney, Hulu's parent, confirmed the outage without a timeline, saying 'some users are experiencing login issues' and the team was investigating. Hulu posted on X that it was on it. Customers complained of poor communication and unanswered support lines, and many demanded refunds because Hulu had advertised the Oscars stream. The ceremony was also on ABC and live-TV streaming services, so many viewers switched to those.

The outage raised questions about how well streaming services handle high-traffic live events as viewers leave cable. As of the report, Hulu had not said whether it would give credits for the disruption.

34,145 outage complaints on Downdetector by 7:30 p.m. ET; 17,000 users still locked out an hour later; no refunds or credits announced.

Demand for a first-ever Oscars stream peaked at once, at the start of the broadcast.

Hulu's login and authentication appeared to fail, per the 'missing error JSON structure' server-side message.

Users were logged out and could not log back in, so they could not even reach the stream.

Communication was limited to a brief statement without a fix time, and support lines went unanswered.

A first live broadcast concentrates demand into minutes; login and session systems must be load-tested for the opening peak, with clear status messages.

Hulu and Disney said the team was working to restore service and gave no refund or credit decision in the Economic Times report. Many viewers moved to ABC's app or live-TV streaming services.