Delays:
Typically shows from Fox, ABC, and NBC will have captions within 48 hours from when the show is posted on Hulu.
What can lead to delays is that we rarely receive caption files at the same time we receive a video file itself. We also have to allow time to manually synchronize the captions with the video/audio to fix timing problems. From time to time, we'll receive an incorrect caption file and have to ask for a redelivery. When issues such as these arise, we may not be able to post the captioning within the 48-hour window noted above.
Additionally, captioning files used for TV are created in different formats and many of them are incompatible with our online service. We work hard to acquire captioning files however we can, but they're unfortunately not always available, particularly for older series and films and those taped live. We’ll continue to seek alternative means to provide captioning for these titles. To help us prioritize our efforts, feel free to use these forums to share your request. You can learn more about this here (
Hulu - Discussions - Closed Captioning)
For all these reasons, you may sometimes notice a lag between when a new video is posted on our site and when its captions are available.