ITV’s streaming service fails to cope with demand from a surge of viewers trying to register and watch the interview online.
The ITV Hub crashed on Monday evening, ahead of the UK screening of the Oprah Winfrey interview with Prince Harry and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex.
The interview, which was first shown on US network CBS during the early hours of Monday morning UK time, got its UK premiere at 9pm on ITV (STV in Central and Northern Scotland).
But a surge in viewers trying to watch online resulted in viewers reporting error messages and the stream crashing. New users reported problems registering for the service.
Viewers trying to watch a live stream on their TV also complained there was no option to watch ITV via the Hub. (ITV live streams are not available on specific TV versions of the app, as it assumes you’ll access the main channel on channel 3 or 103, depending on platform.)
ITV Hub last had a major crash during the 2019 series of Love Island, which also prompted complaints from disgrunted viewers.
The broadcaster hasn’t yet responded to Monday night’s crash. Many potential viewers have tweeted complaints to the official ITV Hub Twitter account, which hasn’t been active since last year.