On Wednesday night, for the second straight night, dozens of thousands of subscribers to Hulu’s live and subscription Video on Demand plans posted online complaints that they could not login, making it impossible to view the streaming service.
Like Tuesday night, the technical issue on Wednesday night seem to begin around 7 p.m. ET, the beginning of the prime time when most people are watching. And like Tuesday, it’s unclear how many people were affected, but Hulu’s Twitter customer support team acknowledged there was a system-wide issue.
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“Apologies for the interruption, folks,” @HuluSupport tweeted at 8:25 p.m. ET. “We’re investigating reports of login trouble tonight, and will provide you with updates as they become available. Please know that our developers are hard at work to get you back to your shows ASAP.”
About two hours later, @HuluSupport returned with an update:
“UPDATE: While we have no news to share at this moment, please know that our developers are working on this with the highest priority. We appreciate your patience,” Hulu said.
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About 30 minutes later, @HuluSupport said they fixed the issue.
“UPDATE: Our developers have made us aware that a fix has been put in place to address the login issue we reported. We encourage users to attempt login once again. Please know that the work will continue to prevent this from happening in the future,” @HuluSupport wrote on Twitter at 10:14 p.m. ET.
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But that was cold comfort to some Hulu users who said they still could not login.
“Still not working on my Roku,” responded @c_cargo310 at midnight.
Earlier in the evening, Hulu subscribers posted far more scathing remarks on Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. They expressed anger that they could not watch Hulu for the second straight night.
“If developers weren’t ready for stable release for Live TV, then you should have waited,” wrote @Breeze_Writer. “I’ve been a customer for years,if this isn’t resolved and corrected I’m adding my complaints to the FTC and BBB this is unreasonable customer service.”
“Still doesn’t work! Being told too many screens are playing for subscription. Logged out and changed password!” added @Thomas1557.
“Hulu won’t work on Apple TV, phone or laptop guess I’ll start using something else,” tweeted @bend7667.
At the height of the issue, DownDetector.com, which tracks online outages, recorded that 4,492 Hulu subscribers were complaining at the same time. Earlier and later, thousands of other Hulu customers were posting complaints, according to the site, meaning that the issue was affecting a significant number of users.
The live streaming industry, which includes Hulu Live, Sling TV, DIRECTV Now and PlayStation Vue, has suffered recurring technical issues during the last few years. However, the subscription Video on Demand category, which includes Netflix, Hulu’s SVOD plan and Amazon Prime, usually is free from significant technical troubles.
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— Phillip Swann
Based on the number of complaints I’ve been reading about, the entire OTT / Streaming industry is still a “Work in Progress “. Eventually the OTT industry will get its act together and perhaps a shakeout will occur