ESPN+ debuts on April 12

I used ESPN+ for the first time this weekend. The stream was great. I only wish they would block out the scores when you go in to view a replay.

 

I was suddenly blacked out this weekend. Emailed them and the CSR made it sound like that's going to be the case from here on out. I'm in the early stages of a prolonged back and forth. Hopefully they just fix the glitch.

 

Final(?) update is that BamTech has essentially thrown up their hands. We've narrowed it down to something being wrong with my ESPN account but they can't figure out what. After unsubscribing through iTunes (how I originally signed up) they gave me a 6 month free trial. When I tried to log in through Roku the app crashed immediately, as opposed to working for that session and crashing on a ll subsequent sessions. Their test account continued to work. So they asked if they could completely delete my ESPN account and re-create it (something that could take up to 10 days). Instead I asked if I could just create a new ESPN account to use just for ESPN+ and they said that was fine, they would configure by morning that one if I sent them the info.

So I'll have a separate login for ESPN+ but I'm getting probably 6 free months out of it, so I'd say its worth it.

 

I haven't seen Alejandro Moreno in forever. He scored a very inconvenient goal for Columbus Crew and called very inconvenient bullshit for Precourt. He is a dedicated professional articulate in two languages. Is he still around?

 

I tried to get to the bottom of why ESPN+ started blacking out SJ local broadcasts. The phone rep said it was a mistake. I followed up by email. They asked me for my zip code and IP address, hopefully to help fix their mistake. I'll know better when I try to watch the 7/7 SJ/Portland match.

For $5/month with the option to cancel and renew as needed, ESPN+ will be okay even if I have to wait to the conclusion of SJ away matches to watch them, as long as I can avoid knowing the result.

Still, ESPN+ is a huge step down from MLS Live, mostly because of the lack of accurate information about local blackouts and the inconsistency in enforcing them. Did the policy change mid-season? Oh yeah, the lack of condensed matches, almost completely gone from my consciousness.

Does MLS care? Hell no.

 

I agree with everything you say here. Anticipating that ESPN+ would have kinks is why I also signed up monthly. Los Rapidos play again on the 4th but its hit or miss to test with it because there's a strong possibility that I chose to live my life instead of taking in the match.

 

They can't seem to figure out the difference between regional and national broadcasts and keep screwing up the blackout thingy. Replays of regional broadcasts are supposed to be available immediately. Sometimes they are and sometimes not. And nobody at customer service seems to know his ass from his elbow. I bent over and subscribed to youtube tv, so I don't get blacked out anymore for the Sounders. Not much of a blessing this year, but into every soccer fan's life, a little crap must fall. I also don't have any Spanish channels anymore, because, unless they have fixed it in the last five minutes, Youtube doesn't have that. But at least it is less glitchy than Sling.

 

Interesting you feel that way. I never have a single problem with Sling. Have used it for years. I did a trial of PlayStation Vue. Talk about glitchy. It was useless. Their app on every platform didn't work. It was really quite remarkable how they could have a bad app on every platform.

 

Success! Set up tonight and everything works how it should It only took 2.5 months, but they gave me a full year free, so until Independence Day 2019 I'm not paying anything!

 

Damn it, I should really know better. My problem has started occurring with the new account I set up with BamTech.

Good news is that this gave me more information for the trouble shooting team. It worked fine earlier this evening when I set it up. I could enter and leave the app, watch ESPN+ streams, no crashes. Then I left the app to do other things. While I was doing other things I updated my iPhone and iPad apps to point to the new account and set my team notifications for the new account. Then I went back to the Roku app for the HOU-LAFC game. Crashing in 3 seconds again, like I've been seeing on my original ESPN account.

So the bug is something to do with accounts that are logged into Roku and Apple devices at once. Its not just that (or they'd be getting a ton of complaints) but that's part of it. It could be that my Apple/iTunes ID and my ESPN ID aren't the same. Or it could be something about passwords between devices or something. But until they figure it out I can either have an account that works on Roku, or an account that works on my iDevices, not both apparently.

 

And meanwhile i have never had one issue.

Its so stupid how these thing work.

 

I actually had a similar issue as you are having on Friday. The cause was the Internet outage that Comcast was having. I'm wondering if your Roku device is losing it's WiFi connection possibly?

I'm also having an issue with the ESPN website when using Google Chrome: it won't let me sign in. When I click log in nothing happens. All other browsers I've tried have no issues. Weird!

 

Nope, absolutely rock solid when I use the test account info they sent me.

Actually got a response from the contact at BamTech tonight. He could recreate using my account on his Roku, so now its just a matter of getting the devs to figure out the bug.

 

I am supposed to be watching the Sounders replay right now. Not available. I won't even bother calling customer service. As I say, they don't know there ass from their elbow.

 

I was blacked out again. I found a stream in like 1 second. I’ll stick it out for a week or two more.

 

I seem to recall that Colorado had local blackouts for MLS Live. Of course, MLS and ESPN+ could provide that information to their customers. Somewhere, anywhere, who the hell knows where?

 

The Rapids blackout area is the reach of Altitude which expands a great area into Montana and Wyoming and New Mexico. For the last six years or so the Rapids had been either not blackout or limited to just Denver. I was a good run while it lasted.

 

Wow, turns out the problem wasn't that I logged in with my Apple devices. Its the fact that when I added my favorite teams to the new account I included Chester FC, a non-league club in England. They've removed Chester from my list of favorites and are asking me to retry when I get home tonight.

I'm guessing its not just Chester but any non-league club would trigger it. The Venn diagram between ESPN+ subscribers, Roku owners, and non-league English club followers probably only has me in all 3 circles...

 

After reading all of your complaints for weeks, that is awesome.

 

Turns out just removing Chester didn't work, but then I started removing and adding my other teams and found out Queen of the South (Scottish Championship) also triggered the failure. The only two soccer teams in my favorites that have never played at the top level in their countries. Odds are its not just that, I'm guessing that the 92 teams in England work fine, even if they haven't been in the EPL, but its an interesting coincidence.

 

Are they going to send you a check for all you hours of testing for them? A free year isnt enough. Normally software companies test their own software. This is crazy.

 

I’m a 20 year QA engineer, I know what goes into a release. This one is hard to blame them for though. How many ESPN+ subscribers run on a Roku and have lower level soccer teams favorited?

 

I thought you just said that removing the team didn't fix the issue.
Doesn't matter if you fault them or not. The customers shouldn't have to help debug/test the issue for them. That is why the customers pay them for the app verses building themselves.
I am also a web/software developer so I am knowledgeable on the topic and interested in your saga. I will openly admit I have never worked on anything that even comes close to the user count of this stuff. Not many developers have.