Hulu Goes Down Amid Coronavirus Self-Quarantine, Leaving Users Scrambling

DirectTV isn't the only TV service that's been having issues amid coronavirus concerns. The [...]

By Christian Long

DirectTV isn't the only TV service that's been having issues amid coronavirus concerns. The streaming service Hulu has apparently gone out for many users as of Friday afternoon, leaving many extra-frustrated due to their current self-quarantine.

According to DownDetector, the number of reported issues with Hulu spiked to over 3,500 on Friday afternoon. An overwhelming percentage of them were unable to stream their particular programs of choice. The TV-centric app has been a haven for cord-cutters, providing next-day airings of a number of network and cable series, along with studio features and their own original content. And, with more and more people isolating themselves to help slow the spread of coronavirus, the outage couldn't have come at a worse time.

Similar issues happened to DirectTV on Wednesday night. The AT&T satellite service went black for roughly 15 minutes during primetime, which meant a number of subscribers missed critical moments of Survivor and The Masked Singer, just to name a few.

Like DirectTV's customers did on Wednesday, Hulu subscribers took to Twitter to vent their frustrations over the inopportune technical difficulty.

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Hulu, which is owned by Disney, first launched as a joint venture between NBC, Newscorp, Province Equity and Disney as a free-to-all streaming service, complete with commercials.

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In 2010, the company offered its first paid subscription model, at the time dubbed "Hulu Plus."

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In 2019, after 20th Century Fox was acquired by Disney, it had a 60 percent stake in the company. Not long after, both AT&T and Comcast sold or ceded control of their shares.

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Since then, Hulu has been looked at as a home for content that wouldn't fit on the exclusively family-friendly Disney+.

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Such was the case with the Love, Simon series adaptation, Love, Viktor, which was recently moved from Disney+ to Hulu.

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Hilary Duff is hoping the same thing can be done with the Lizzie McGuire revival, which was temporarily put on hold by the House of Mouse due to the direction of the new series.

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