I cut the cord with cable a long time ago. It’s been a great experience for me, and an amazing money saver to boot. I wrote about how to cut the cord with cable and how I’m using my Roku and PlayOn TV to watch the shows I want to see. While it isn’t perfect and doesn’t cover every network and every show, it covers everything I care about except some sports. Not anymore. The online streaming of ABC changed on January 6, and now you need to sign in to your cable provider to watch new shows via the ABC app.
I have a major philosophical issue with this, as ABC is network television and meant to be free tv. When you stream ABC on the abc.go app, you have to watch commercials. In fact, you watch a lot of commercials. There are at least six commercial breaks in an hour long show, one before the show starts and five throughout the episode, and you cannot fast forward through them or change apps on your tablet or phone to avoid them. You’re pretty much forced to watch them, unlike when I used to use my VCR to tape show or even my DVR where I could fast forward.
Apparently ABC has decided that they aren’t making enough money from the commercials, and now you have to have an affiliation with an approved cable provider to use the ABC app. Whether it’s because they can’t charge enough per viewing of the commercials online or their shows cost too much to make and license or some other problem altogether, address that root cause. This is not the answer. Within two days, the abc.go app already had over 3,000 one star reviews. They updated it to fix some (not insignificant) bugs, and already there are almost 1,500 1 star reviews compared to 14 five star reviews. That should tell you something there.
My personal opinion aside, this is the reality at the moment. ABC follows the trend set by Fox and CBS in making this change, as Fox has long required you to provide your cable provider to watch recent shows (but I’ll be honest, there aren’t any Fox shows I watch, so I sort of hadn’t cared). CBS has been late to the game in providing online streaming, and again there aren’t any CBS shows I’m interested in watching primarily because they haven’t streamed shows in the past. While CBS doesn’t require you (yet) to have a cable subscription, they simply don’t load shows to their app until a week has passed, which is essentially the same result. NBC, however, still keeps free tv as free tv for all, not just those who are (over?)paying for cable with select providers. For now. You know it’s a matter of time, right?
ABC? If you’re listening, I have a message for you. There are some shows that I’m willing to wait to watch, but not many. And those are only the shows that I currently watch and love, which is down to four (yep, just four) right now. Three I’ll wait to watch, but the fourth? Nope. So that means you just lost a viewer.
When they go off the air, I won’t be searching for new ABC shows to replace them. I’ll find other ways to spend my time, and that’s fewer eyeballs you’ll have anywhere. You can’t stop the tide of change. People simply don’t sit down on a Thursday night to watch live television anymore. More and more of us are cutting the cord with cable for a variety of reasons. If you want to retain a fraction of your viewership, this is a decision you need to seriously revisit.
So what’s up with the new ABC app? I’ve been exploring and testing and playing with it for awhile, and I at least have some answers to what you can and can’t do.
ABC App FAQ – what you can and can’t do with ABC.go
Can I just not update the abc.go app and keep watching my shows?
Nope. When you open the app anytime after January 6, you receive the message that this version of the app is no longer supported and that you have to update the app. You can either choose to not update it and simply not stream ABC anymore, or you can update it with the new restrictions.
If I don’t have cable, can I watch nothing?
Fortunately, no. I have a feeling there would be some regulatory involvement if the networks made all their shows pay only. Shows are available for select cable subscribers the day after they air. They are then available to everyone one week after they air. So if you’re up for watching Grey’s Anatomy seven days after it airs, you can still do so.
How do I know what I can view if I don’t have an approved cable plan?
When you open the app and view the television shows, episodes that are in their “protected period” will have a bar across them “VERIFY TO VIEW.” If you click on one, it will ask you to sign in with an approved cable subscription. These shows will also list how long until the protected period expires so you know when you can come back to watch it without a subscription.
The show I want to watch is expiring soon. That’s not fair!
From what I can see, shows will be uploaded for streaming twice. The protected period upload will have the one week countdown and the verified requirement. Once that period has passed, the episode will be pulled and reuploaded with for streaming accessible to everyone. Those shows will have no notifications on them, and they don’t state when they will expire. Typically, five episodes (including the protected viewing episodes, if any) are available at any given time, but sometimes there are fewer or (rarely) more.
If I have cable, am I set to watch just like I did before?
Only if you are lucky enough to live where the cable provider has partnered with ABC. Right now, only some providers are participating, though this may change going forward. For ABC, if you have a cable subscription with AT&T U-verse, Charter, Cox, Google fiber, Midcontinent Communications, Optimum, Verizon FiOS, or Xfinity, you are set. If you have any other provider, you’re out of luck. That includes major cable providers like Time Warner, as well as Dish and Direct TV.
How do I log in if I have a subscription with one of the participating cable providers?
Click on any episode that has VIEW TO VERIFY on it. That will take you to the list of cable partners. Select your cable provider, which will open a new page where you enter your credentials. Once you’ve signed in, it should take you back to the show you wanted to view and keep you logged in going forward. That said, it doesn’t (yet) work perfectly. You may need to close the app and reopen it before it accepts your login.
If I stream television via Roku or Apple TV, can I watch ABC protected view episodes?
Yes… and no. If you had access to ABC streaming to your television via a third party provider previously, you may be able to. Hulu+ subscribers can still watch the recent episodes part of the subscription, for example. If you watch them using Hulu without upgrading (which I do – or did), you can sign in to your AT&T U-verse, Cox, Optimum, or Verizon and watch current episodes. Not that Comcast’s Xfinity is not on that list, though it is a partner with the Watch ABC app, which means that I’m out of luck. PlayOn TV does not currently have a way to provide a username and password for a cable provider to allow you to access those channels, though that coding may change going forward. There are other channels where PlayOn TV already allows login access.
If I don’t have an approved cable subscription, can I still watch my daily shows?
Here lies a big flaw in the setup. ABC protects daily shows like The View or General Hospital for seven days, just like other shows. And typically, they only retain five episodes at a time. If you don’t have a cable subscription, ABC deletes episodes are completely before the protected period ends, and you simply can’t watch them.
What if I want to watch ABC live on the ABC app?
Do it on your television, or set up your old-fashioned VCR to record. If you want to watch ABC live on your device, you must have a subscription to a cable partner. Otherwise, you’re out of luck.
The message? Television is currently trying to maintain the status quo. They want people to watch shows live. They want the current cable empire to continue as is. That isn’t where the world is moving. ABC’s online streaming is just the latest fallout as networks and other companies navigate the constantly changing landscape. Will this stick? I sincerely hope not, but it’s what we have to deal with today.
Want change? Speak up. Talk to ABC. Email to regulators. Call your cable company. Make noise and make your voice heard. So many people simply deleted the ABC app and won’t watch the network at all. Those actions speak loudest because they affect companies in the pocketbook. When they don’t get ad revenue from the eyeballs that don’t watch their streaming shows, that hurts them.
Don’t overlook that you can still push the “TV” button on your remote and receive all the major TV stations (ABC, CBS, NBC,FOX etc.) broadcasting in your area, just as you did before cable. Almost all of their programs are HD. You might need one of the new type antennas (get one with both VHS and UHF capabilities), but they are still out there sending their signals through the airwaves. I now have all the content from Amazon Prime, as well as 17 free channels from broadcast stations.
Yep, you can definitely still watch ABC live via antenna – which is something I talk about in another post altogether. BUT I want to live my life and watch what little tv I do on my own time rather than being beholden to 7pm, don’t get a phone call, type watching. That’s where the issue of not being able to watch online becomes an issue and where it tends to really be driving people away.
I still have a VCR that I can record from my antenna, so that helps a lot when you want to have a life. 🙂 It still does the job. Thanks again.
I did a post or two about this on my own blog so this subject is fresh in my mind. Thanks for the information on verification. Very useful.
My mother (aged 86) has moved in with me and wants to watch some shows that are cable only. And I cut the cable.
A few interesting points on cable. One, over a year ago the FCC ruled that cable companies could begin encrypting Basic cable channels, those are the channels that are broadcast over the air and can be received via an antenna. That was the only service I used for $9.50 a month. Why would the cable company (Comcast) encrypting something that is not encrypted and broadcast free? The answer is that the cable companies are very annoyed with people who don’t use cable boxes and for basic cable that cable coming into the house can be connected directly into the TV. No cable box, no extra revenue for Movies on Demand, premium channels etc. etc…
The DTV adapter that is provided to decrypt the unnecessary encryption takes the HD signal coming in and outputs a SD (low resolution) signal out. One DTV adapter is required for each TV or DVR recorder and while in some areas two or three DTV’s are provided initially free of charge, after one or two years that changes and (Comcast at least) each will then cost $10/month. Still outputting an SD signal.
So I cancelled cable TV saving the $10/month and installed a antenna. So the next month, Comcast upped the cost of my internet connection by $15/month for loss of “Bundled product discount”.
This is getting long so I’ll cut it short. Let me finish with, “What would Uncle Miltty say?”
Why yes, yes, that is a huge issue. We did the same thing with the antenna, and our costs went up – but all we want and need is internet. We will call periodically and ask for promos and can get our rate reduced, but the whole game is disgusting to me.
Especially when you compare the speed and service available to Europe, and parts of Asia.
Since (for all intent and purposes) cable is an monopoly, why is it a monopoly that is not regulated the same way that phone, electricity and gas are regulated? Even on the local level, our town used to have a cable board that rode herd on the cable company in town. But not now.
Your (most excellent) article was on streaming ABC. But the cable companies were the reason for the change, their pushback on their viewership dropping them and doing a end run via streaming started this. So contacting ABC to protest may do little good, writing your congressperson to shake the tree of which Comcast and Time Warner are the biggest branches might. And now, while those two are trying to get their merger approved might be the best time.
Now, time to garden.
I, like you, have stopped getting hooked on ABC shows. Our cable provider isn’t included, so we get extra screwed. We pay, we can’t watch right away, and when we can, there are tons of commercial breaks. (The “limited commercial” promise at the beginning doesn’t fool anyone.)
I hope enough people stop watching and they make some changes.
ABC Go offers some great shows and of course the ABC live feature. If you don’t live in US, you can use UnoTelly or similar tools to access it in your country.
Gosh I am WITH YOU on this! I could no longer justify paying $130 a month for cable and internet when I live alone and am never home when my shows are on. There are literally like three shows I’ll actually watch and those are (were) Twisted, The Fosters, and Dance Moms. I’m extremely annoyed that I can no longer watch any of them online because I only have internet service (which I got primarily for school, but also because I THOUGHT I would be able to watch my shows online after they aired…joke is on me I guess). I think it’s ridiculous that they force people to have cable to watch a show. If I was going to go back to paying for cable I would get it with a DVR to record my shows and it wouldn’t matter whether I could see them online or not. It’s so annoying. Sorry not all of us can afford to pay for something we hardly use.
An interesting sidelight to this discussion: when I called Comcast to drop TV and phone service, they advised me that my internet service would cost me $84.00/month. I immediately purchased a cable modem to save $8.00/month. Yesterday I called them and told them I was dropping their internet service because ATT had s promo rate of $19.95/mo. After about 2-3 minutes of haggling, I ended up with a reduced rate of $21.00/mo. for a year, followed by an increase to 41.00/mo. for the following year, and then up to $76.00. I plan on staying with them for a year and then moving to ATT.
Absolutely. You get a bundled price for multiple products that really gets increased when you cancel products. BUT I’ve never failed in a negotiation with my cable company over pricing. Congrats!
I bought an overair antenna paid 99.99 for mine because I’m no near a big city but there is a good one for 59. My picture is way better then my dish picture was. I get live tv on the analogue connection just like the old days. I just can’t record but my hulu will give me the show the next day or two if I miss the live show.
I gave up my cable the end of April this year. I watch mostly anything I want on The Dare wall.com. The only thing I really miss is HGTV. I used to have them on almost all weekend when I was with cable. Oh well its their loss. You would think these networks would make it easier for people to watch online instead of more difficult. I enjoyed reading your blog though as I had wondered why I hat to supply a cable provider and now I know.
I am a senior lady and as such could not afford both cable and internet so I made the choice to go with internet and I’m not sorry. BTW – ABC lost me when they cancelled All My Children. I had watched that show from the onset and I was devastated when it was taken off the air along with a lot of other people. I vowed I would never watch ABC again. Childish???? Yeah likely but that was the way I felt and still do.
I will read the rest of this article when I have the time! I can’t afford satellite or cable, being retired & living on a VERY small amount of money! Sometimes I miss a show or forget to set the recorder, so, I use to like being able to watch them after a few hours online. Now, ABC makes you wait 8 days [Fox, also] to watch them & yes, they use to have only one or two commercials…..now, too, many! CBS lets you watch theirs that night, but is loaded with commercials. I’m about ready to “CAN” both of these stations/channels! Do all these companies advertising on TV, really, think we’ll run right out & buy their product? When I’m watching a recorded show [record almost everything], I FF through all the commercials! When I do watch the shows while they are airing, I do other things when the commercials are on! I do not watch them. They aggravate the “H” out of me!!! Do they cause me to buy a product????? “H” NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
I have a problem with Comcast – not TV advertisers. As much as you may dislike advertisements, they are a necessary “evil”. You have to pay for your entertainment! Actors, production companies and other expenses associated with making movies or TV shows are paid for their services. They don’t do all this work because you are entitled to free entertainment. They do it to earn money.
I’m with you, although I’ll add ABC into the mix, as well. I get that advertisements are a necessary evil – it’s the cost of my “free” broadcast television. Except that even that isn’t free anymore – at least not the way it used to be.
You said everything I was thinking. ABC SUCKS! The one show they have that’s good, I can’t watch.
I think cable companies should be paying us to watch all of these commercials, paid programming, the same movies over and over again. We are constantly having adds thrown at us. An hour program = 40 min + 20 min of commercials. We should, at least, be able to choose which programs / networks are included in the packages we pay for. I miss the days when I was a kid that you would turn on the TV and there was always something to watch even though not so many channels, (had to move the antena around sometimes though) but it was free.
I agree that the providers should allow us to pick the channels we want, and pay for them only. I offered that deal to Comcast and they refused, and that’s when I dropped their TV. If enough people do the same thing to the monopoly that the cable providers have, they will become more reasonable. Sadly, ain’t gonna happen.