Disney’s first-ever Oscars livestream was disrupted for many viewers by a frustrating glitch on Sunday that cut off the show before the final awards. Many users reported that at 10:30 p.m. ET, seconds before Mikey Madison’s surprise Best Actress win and minutes before Best Picture was announced, the livestream abruptly ended and displayed a message that read, “This live event has now ended.”
This followed tech issues earlier in the Sunday broadcast that prevented thousands of subscribers from logging into their accounts to watch the 97th Academy Awards. The broadcast, which aired live this year on ABC and on Hulu for the first time, began at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. However, according to Down Detector, a digital service monitoring site, well over 30,000 users reported issues using their Hulu accounts to watch the Oscars.
Representatives for Hulu and Disney did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
The tech issues come as Bloomberg reports that the Academy is exploring other broadcast partners as their current deal with longtime home ABC nears its end in 2028. That includes streamers, and Disney’s livestream issues could have the Academy looking fondly at someone like Netflix, who hosted a seamless stream of the SAG Awards last month.
Down Detector’s site logged that Sunday’s Hulu reports hit a peak at 4:31 p.m. PT, half an hour after this year’s Conan O’Brien-hosted Oscars began, with 34,868 users reporting issues with their Hulu accounts at that time.
In response to the thousands of reports, the official Hulu Support account on X tweeted at 4:39 p.m., “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.” Users flooded social media Sunday afternoon and evening with posts expressing their frustration with Hulu and their inability to tune into this year’s Oscars.
“#Hulu owes me a damn refund right about now,” one user wrote on X. “All that advertisement about streaming the #Oscars2025, only for the site to not work.”
“I was going to watch the Oscars on Disney+, since I have my Hulu connected to it and you’re supposed to be able to watch it, but it’s nowhere to be found,” another user tweeted. “And the Hulu app and Hulu website just keep giving me errors on every browser.”
This year’s Oscars shift to Hulu comes not only at a time when an increasing number of live events are branching into streaming, including other Hollywood award shows like the SAG Awards and sporting events like the Super Bowl, but also when companies and networks like ABC and Disney are fighting to keep viewership for broadcasts like the Oscars up.
