Channels & viewing

[pspens]

I have a Roku Express.  Heretofore, I have been watching HBO Max and Showtime Anytime via my Roku with Comcast subscriptions to these premium channels.  Occasionally, Roku wants you to verify that you have a subscription.  In the past I had no problem verifying, e.g., going to a specified website and entering a 5-digit code provided by Roku to enter onto the website.  I have lately not been able to do this either with Max (HBO) or showtime.  E.g., for showtime, I go to showtimeanytime.com/activate, enter the code, choose Xfinity as my carrier, then login to Xfinity.  This is somehow supposed to verify my subscription, but nothing happens on the TV anymore.  The code remains, rather than getting the Successful message or just taking me into showtime.  Has something changed recently?  Does showtime no longer support the Roku Express?  I am also suspicious that nowhere is it asked for which device I'm activating.  Seems to me, in the past, I had to choose Roku somewhere along the way.

[renojim]

The first thing you have to understand is that Roku doesn't supply that code and has nothing to do with the linking process.  You would be better off asking Showtime, HBO/Max, or Xfinity what's going on.  The common denominator may be Xfinity.  You might want to restart everything involved - Roku device, and all of your network equipment.

You can also try the usual remove the channel/app, restart your Roku device, add the channel/app again procedure.

[pspens]

Well, I've already gone through about an hour of Comcast support, who tried numerous things all resulting in the same outcome. I started complaining about the mods made to the Xfinity website and suggested that those mods broke something and he clearly got upset by this and suggested that I call Roku and didn't want to carry on with the issue with me.  I might try to uninstall the app and retry it but the same thing is happening with the Max app, so it can't be the app, right?  We already tried power-cycling the Roku device as well as the modem and router.

[RokuERey]

Hi @pspens,

Welcome to the Roku Community!

We'd recommend getting additional help from the channel support team. Channel authentication is managed directly by the channel providers themselves. Roku only hosts the channel available on the platform.

Please let us know if on how it goes.

Thanks,

Rey