ESPN+ debuts on April 12

I've been experiencing the same problems as you. I recall having Hammarby IF in Sweden (not always in Allsvenskan) as a team in my ESPN profile. I'll have to check this out after work today.

 

Removing just Chester FC didn't fix the issue, removing both Chester FC and Queen of the South did.

Pretty obvious that they got my updated reproduction steps, loaded my account and looked at how the code interacted with favorites, found the error log when it hit Chester FC being a favorite (which must have loaded before Queen of the South), figured out that was the problem, and told me to remove it. Either they didn't look further in the logs to see the error with Queen of the South or the first error caused a failure that prevented the system from even attempting to load Queen of the South so the error wasn't present.

Once I knew that the issue was a favorite team when my system still failed once I removed Chester it was a simple trial and error of removing all my non-obvious favorites (I left my college, NFL, and MLB favorites) and adding each one back until it failed. That was going to be fater than reporting it was still broken and having them find the problem. I was almost certain it was going to be Queen of the South and/or CD Tenerife, as the only two to not have regular ESPN coverage (The U.S. Nats, Rapids, Blackburn, and Melbourne get more coverage so I was pretty sure it wasn't them). Tenerife was in La Liga in the recent past though so it worked.

As @ElJefe essentially says below, there's no such thing as a perfect software application and I feel this is edge case enough that there's really no fault in them missing it. The only frustration is with ESPN dragging their feet getting me in contact with somebody who could actually help.

Yep, I'm sure it was driving the developers crazy every time I would tell them it was still broken. Things went much faster once ESPN passed me on to BamTech customer support and I knew my details were going directly from the support rep to the development team. Then when we figured out that the changes I made to the account was the cause of it going from working to failing it gave them the exact points to look at.

The bug is in their JIRA board for their first August sprint, so I would assume by the end of the month things should be working correctly even for smaller teams.

I've always said that if you want to see a perfect piece of software load up Calculator. Anything more complex than that has a bug in it somewhere, guaranteed (and Calculator hasn't always been perfect).

 

ESPN+ blacked out the Portland/SJ match locally in the Bay Area. As far as I can tell, either SJ or MLS has changed its local blackout policy for SJ mid-season. The ESPN+ phone rep had nothing new or substantial to share last night. I am trying to follow up by email without any response yet.

Can anyone watch in-market matches live on ESPN+?

 

I cannot in the Altitude are.

Judging by some of the comments I’ve seen around Facebook it looks like others are suddenly experiencing the same.

I just canceled my subscription.

 

Same for me in Dayton Ohio. 70 miles from Columbus. Can’t get the over the air Columbus channel. Blacked out on ESPN+. I guess MLS doesn’t want me to watch my team. Why is the league in 5th place again?

 

Email reply from ESPN+:

"Please be advised you are currently located in the local network for the San Jose Earthquakes and your local broadcasting network has purchased the rights to exclusively air the live game in your area. You are, however, able to watch the game as a replay after the end of the game."

All evidence points to a league wide local blackout policy.

 

You're complaining about it's best ever placement - against leagues with generations more fans? Really?

 

Back in my early days as a contract programmer in the late-80s one of the computer catchphrases of the day was "fool proof" as in fool proof computer or fool proof software. I marketed myself and my custom programming as "fool friendly" - because fools are so ingenious. With my 30+ years and your 24 years, you'll nod your head as you hear a software developer on the phone going "you're using it to do what?"

 

Can I just vent that it's crap that the NYC teams' games are blacked out in the entire state?

 

Well done ESPN+, I missed the first kickoff at Audi Field because you were in commercial.

 

TSN was in commercial, ESPN+ was just using their feed. If you're going to bitch and moan about a product, at least get it right as to which one was the problem.

 

I'm assuming the regional sports networks (RSNs) are available in the whole state. The only upstate teams in top American leagues are the Buffalo Bills in a sport that isn't on RSNs and the NHL's Buffalo Sabres. It wouldn't make sense for people in upstate New York to not get to watch New York City teams. By the same logic, I would expect RSNs from Boston to be available in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, which don't have any big cities. In sports with teams in Seattle but not Portland, I would expect people in Oregon, Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming to want to watch Seattle teams. If you get games on an RSN, why does it matter how far from the stadium you are? The point of blackouts is not to make you travel to stadiums. What's unfair is if you get blacked out of games on RSNs you can't get.

 

My issue with Altitude's blackout policy is that Altitude has no online stream option. To (legally) watch the Rapids in Altitude's broadcast region you must have a cable or satellite subscription. I believe most other RSN's now have an option for cord cutters.

 

The YES network is widely distributed throughout NY and the Northeast US. It's also available on DirectTV. I have friends who have Verizon FiOS in the Philly area, and when I use their WiFi the NYC games are blacked out on ESPN+.

YES network is also available for streaming through the Fox Sports App.

 

Follow up. Yup, that solved it. I re-installed the ESPN app on my Roku. Tried to open the DCU v VAN game, asked for my subscription to be completed with the code on es.pn/roku, hit enter ... Then the Roku app crashed. Opened the app, it crashed again.

Went to EPSN.com and removed Hammarby IF from my favorites. Tried to select the match again. Voila! ESPN works on the Roku now.

 

My bet is that the teams that are available to set as favorite by selecting their league and selecting their team work fine. Teams you have to use the search function to find to set as favorite cause the app to crash. Presumably there's some code around the default favorite teams that's missing from the searched ones.

The only flaw in this reasoning is me having Tenerife as a favorite, which you have to search for, doesn't cause the crash. Tenerife was in La Liga not too long ago though, and would have been one of the default teams. I'm guessing it retained whatever code it had then and makes it through the bug.

 

My biggest issues with the ESPN app across all platforms:
1) no way to hide the scores
2) no option to start from the beginning after match is in progress (FOX app has this)
3) No 10 second skip (again FOX app has this)

I understand why they would have the scores visible as a default, but the fact that they charge money for this means that the format should be customizable to what the viewer wants. I like to start watching games after I put the kids to bed, so my only options to avoid spoilers is to start the stream and pause it until I'm ready, or wait until the game finishes completely to watch the replay (which sucks because that means having to stay up later).

I fell in love with FOX's 10 second skip during the World Cup because I could skip ahead during breaks (throw ins, goal kicks, goal kicks etc.) without missing anything.

 

You can avoid spoilers if you use ESPN+ the old fashioned way, on a computer web browser, once the match completes. Just start here: http://www.espn.com/watch/schedule/?type=replay. With local blackouts now uniformly enforced across MLS, I must use this option.

I'm not sure about time shifting while a match is still occurring.

 

I've noticed that I cannot time shift on an ESPN nationally broadcasted match, but for all others on ESPN+ I have no problem with time shifting even if live. You can stop/start replays for national broadcasts.

 

This author confirms the league wide local blackout policy: https://www.americansocceranalysis....ision-blackouts-when-emotion-and-data-collide

 

I'm pretty sure Chicago is not blacked out, since ESPN+ is their "local TV" partner.

 

He says "ABC owns ESPN...so basically if I want to watch the Union, I need to have cable".

You can get most local sports channels by subscribing to FUBO.tv

I use it FUBO to get NYC games on YES and Red Bulls games on MSG.

 

I guess you could try NordVPN or Torguard VPN (the 2 VPNs with the lowest latency) with trackOFF but things get complicated.

 

Same in Denver. Altitude has no legal stream available without a cable/sat subscription.