Love Island, ITV’s mega-popular reality TV show, came back for its fifth series last night with its highest ever opening. However, those numbers came with a price, as ITV Hub, the broadcaster’s streaming service, suffered numerous technical failures during the live airing.
Love Island is an ITV2 programme hosted by Caroline Flack, in which single (and good looking) men and women are brought to a luxurious location, where they’re supposed to find love. (Though they mostly find other things…).
Series 4 of the show ended 10 months ago, so fans were understandably eager to watch the Series 5 premiere. So much so, that it broke its own record and scored the highest ever opening with 3.3 million viewers, according to Deadline.
Many of the viewers opted to watch the show via streaming, on ITV Hub, and during the live airing 488,000 people tried to stream it simultaneously.
ITV Hub is ITV’s streaming service, which is available on desktop PCs, smartphones, tablets – and tellies, via apps on Smart TVs or streamers like the Fire TV. ITV Hub also has a “Plus” version that lets you watch Love Island without adverts.
Actually GUTTED I can’t stream love island even tho I have an itvhub subscription @itvhub 😭
— M O L L Y 🧣 (@mollythompsonx_) June 3, 2019
Unfortunately, the service was apparently not ready for these huge numbers, and many viewers complained on Twitter about constant freezes, buffering, and even the title sequence playing on a continuous loop.
I want to watch #LoveIsland on the itvhub live, but when I go on it it says ‘the current programme is not available on this platform’ what does this mean?? I won’t be able to watch on the itvplayer?? @LoveIsland
— Daisy (@Daisy21113042) June 3, 2019
Additionally, many viewers were locked out of their accounts for some reason, with the ability to reset their passwords being stuck “due to the high load”.
Apologies to users requesting password resets and verification emails for ITV Hub+ – due to high load we are experiencing some delays. Please keep trying and remember to check your email address is correct and check your spam folder!
— ITV Hub (@itvhub) June 3, 2019
ITV has since apologised for the malfunctions during the series premiere – and will hopefully manage to fix things before the next episode airs. The show can also be watched for free via ITV2 on Freeview.