If you tuned into the Academy Awards you were undoubtedly met with the glitz and glamor of Hollywood’s starriest night. Or your vision was left red because you were cursing at your computer or television because you couldn’t figure out how the hell to watch the ceremony.
To explain: while the ABC red carpet for the awards were presented on the combined Hulu/Disney+ app, which Disney endlessly pushes as the preferred way to watch, trumpeting the “one app experience” (it doesn’t hurt that subscribing to Disney+ and Hulu comes in at a much higher price). But when the red carpet coverage ended, you couldn’t find the Academy Awards on the single Disney+/Hulu app. This led to much outrage and consternation on social media.
One X user said that “I’m going to be very happy when the Oscars go to YouTube.” The user continued: “It was advertising as being on Hulu. But as it turns out, not your basic Hulu… just the super expensive Hulu live, or whatever that is. I had to get a free trial of Fubo to watch.”
Another user remarked: “What’s the point of having Disney + and Hulu when you can’t watch the Oscars unless you have a regular Hulu account. Why pay twice for something that I already have smh.”
Hulu customer service actually responded to one irate subscriber, saying, “Thanks for following up! To clarify, the Oscars will be available to stream live for all Hulu subscribers on the Hulu app or website. The replay will also be available on demand on Disney+ after the ceremony ends. We hope this helps!”
The subscriber responded to the Hulu customer service person, saying, “This makes zero sense! So Hulu subscribers can watch The Oscars live but people who have Hulu in their Disney+ plus bundle won’t have a live stream??”
The workaround seemed to be either download Hulu on its own — which if you have Disney+ and Hulu, was frowned upon — and sign on from there. Although, if you tried to do this, either on your television/streaming box or computer, you would possibly get an error message, which is what happened to us.
But hey, a free trial subscription to Fubo or YouTube TV seemed to solve it for some. Should it really be this difficult to watch the Academy Awards? Especially when it was advertised endlessly as being available?
The post Oscar Night’s Biggest Loser Was Hulu as Viewers Run Into One Issue After Another appeared first on TheWrap.
