For three straight nights, Hulu has experienced widespread login issues, preventing thousands of subscribers from watching live shows and Video On Demand programs, according to user posts and Hulu’s customer support team.
Last night’s glitch occurred around 9 p.m. ET, just before the start of the NBA All-Star Basketball game on TNT. At the same time, NBC was in the middle of its prime time coverage of the 2018 Winter Olympics.
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The inability to login to watch these two highly-rated broadcasts caused thousands of Hulu subscribers to login to their favorite social media sites to express their anger.
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“That’s ok, @hulu and @hulu_support, I didn’t want to watch the #Olympics tonight anyway,” @Leslie_PScott wrote sarcastically on Twitter.
“My question is, how much longer before the problem is fixed? Or should I just discontinue my membership?” wrote “Dan Foster” on the Disqus message forum. “I am NOT the only one here! We are all frustrated and pissed because we are paying for your service and we get NOTHING in return. You should give all of us a free 30 days for the hassle and inconvenience. Frankly, it’s complete BS.”
“I signed up for Hulu strictly to stream Olympics… i want a refund,” added “DP,” another unhappy Disqus member.
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Some Hulu customers noted that the live streaming service had similar technical problems the previous two nights. DownDetector.com, which tracks online outages, reports that hundreds of Hulu subscribers posted login complaints on the nights of February 16 and 17 as well.
In addition, Hulu earlier this month experienced several technical issues during the Super Bowl broadcast, including login problems before the game, and blank screens during the last two minutes. The problems affected so many subscribers during the game that Hulu had to offer a one-month credit to affected customers.
“For the third time this month @hulu cant handle a major event on live tv! Just trying to watch the #NBAAllStar game! How about @hulu_support you refund me for this month ??? Super bowl, olympics and nba all star game! You obviously should not do live tv!!!! #cancelhululive ” tweeted @mike_cerar at 8:09 p.m. ET.
“OMG you did it to me again, first the Super Bowl, now the NBA All Star game…WTF is wrong with you guys that you can’t keep the service up during big events…do you do this s— on purpose…??”tweeted @kternovan1023.
Hulu’s Twitter support team last night acknowledged the login issue in tweets, and began issuing apologies.
“If you’re running into login trouble this evening…it’s not you, it’s us. We’re working to get you back to your programming ASAP and will update here accordingly,” @Hulusupport wrote at 10:47 p.m. ET.
A few hours later, Hulu Support posted another tweet saying the problem had been fixed.
“UPDATE: Our devs were able to patch things up and resolve the issue causing login trouble. We suggest a quick power-cycle to get things going again. Our apologies for interrupting your streams tonight,” Hulu wrote on Twitter.
However, the previous two nights after login glitches, Hulu posted similar ‘it’s fixed’ messages only to experience another meltdown last night.
“It’s cute that y’all think this is fixed,” responded @Troy_Tamez at 12:53 a.m. this morning.
Hulu’s technical issues last night did not seem to affect other live streaming services such as DIRECTV Now, Sling TV or PlayStation Vue. However, all live streamers have experienced technical issues from time to time, particularly during high-profile programs and sporting events when viewing is highest.
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People are happy to proclaim their freedom from evil cable and then after they make the switch they find out that you get what you pay for. All vMVPDs should be required to make disclaimers about performance issues during nationally televised events. This poor quality of service is totally expected for those of us in the business. Every subscriber that uses this type of service to watch the Olympics, NBA All Star game, Super Bowl , etc. counts as an individual stream, which equates to servers getting slammed with millions of actions, bringing the equipment to its knees. Spoiler alert to those who think they will watch the NCAA BB playoffs from a vMVPD, keep your cable.