Hulu prematurely ended its Oscars stream right before the final awards

[Karlston]

The Disney-owned service cut off its live feed before the Best Actress and Best Picture Oscar winners were announced.

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

 

Hulu subscribers watching the Academy Awards ceremony on Sunday night were outraged when the streaming service ended its broadcast before the show was actually over. Viewers saw a “thank you for watching” message that falsely claimed “the live event has now ended” — despite the fact that the Best Actress and Best Picture Oscars were still to come. Social media platforms and the Hulu subreddit immediately lit up with complaints and threats of cancellation.

 

It turned out to be a rough night for the Disney-owned service. A few hours earlier, Hulu acknowledged that some customers were having issues logging in: that problem was rectified slightly before 9PM ET. But shutting off the live stream ahead of the evening’s biggest prizes was an even more embarrassing blunder.

 

The error came down to scheduling: Hulu gave the Oscars a set ending time of 10:32PM. That’s exactly when viewers started getting kicked out of the stream. But as usual, several acceptance speeches ran long on Sunday night, and Hulu’s chosen cutoff time didn’t allow enough wiggle room for an often-unpredictable broadcast.

 

“This evening, we experienced technical and live stream issues on Hulu which impacted some Oscars viewers,” Disney said in a statement provided by spokesperson Dorothy Ballowe. “We apologize for the experience and will make a full replay of the event available as soon as possible.”

 

I don’t know how we’re still having these streaming mishaps in 2025 — especially from the company that owns the rights to the Oscars telecast, the network it was carried on, and the streaming service in question — but here we are. Cable viewers and those watching with a TV antenna were spared from the technical difficulties. Customers streaming through Hulu with Live TV were also unaffected since they were seeing the live, linear ABC feed.

 

The situation is reminiscent of Super Bowl LII in 2018, when Hulu similarly ended its live broadcast in some markets before the game had concluded.

 

Update, March 3rd 12:20AM: The article has been updated with comment from Disney.

 

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