Solving playback issues

[Agavrin]

Then you are in rare air because it seems that everyone having difficulty is using Roku, including me.

[Agavrin]

Not sure how long they've been "working on it" but I am typing this on the 8th of October, 2024 and there is still no resolution (after spending >2 hrs and having chat convos with at least 3 different tech agents.)

[Agavrin]

Sorry to hear that. It doesn't however, change the fact that almost everyone reporting this problem is dealing with Roku tvs, and in my case, I'm just trying to gain entry to watch Monday night football on regular ESPN, not 3 and not +. And since this is all spearheaded as a Disney product, (I don't know about you but), I expect better than this from them -especially when they are aware of the problem between their product and one of the most popular device manufacturers.) It's up to Disney, Espn, and Roku to get this solved!

[Agavrin]

I spent quite a bit of time with tech support from verizon trying to just get into Monday night football on ESPN on my Roku. Theyx̌ve recommended I contact ESPN because like most everyone else else, I am authenticated, etc. for ALL other components of my Disney+ bundle and have no trouble viewing content in either Disney or Hulu. Would love to know how you got the regular ESPN to work on YOUR Roku?

[Agavrin]

Carly, it may not be Roku overseeing the specific streaming channel apps, however, they bear some of the responsibility since it is THEIR product which is at the root of the problem. No one is reporting any of these problems when using any other manufacturer's devices.

[Asellus]

I understand your frustration. I know maybe you won't want to hear this, and it may not add much. If you look at my post from September 7, I did send the issue tracking thread the Roku moderator opened for me that is now closed to ESPN tech support. It's not acceptable, but there are several alternative workarounds/suggestions that other Roku users have added in there; maybe you've already read it, so I apologize if you were already aware.

The fact that ESPN hasn't fixed it yet even after I sent them that information tells me I made the right choice in giving up. It's not really worth your stress level. I spent a whole two weeks driving myself crazy trying to get both companies to work it out. Save yourself any more time on it.

Maybe Disney will get it fixed by the time they integrate some ESPN content into Disney + later this year, but I won't hold out too much hope. It sounds like this issue started around April, but my personal issues with it started in June. As it is, I really just don't use the ESPN app anymore for any ESPN channels because of this issue, and I rarely use it for ESPN+ anymore because I found these recent problems pretty frustrating. I cancelled the ESPN+ portion of my Disney Bundle as a result and will just stick with Disney + and Hulu. It's probably time to consider using another device if I need ESPN, as much as I overall like Roku. But maybe the new ESPN D2C app they put out next year will work properly on Roku, and people with tv providers will be able to use it.

Getting off my soapbox now. Thanks for reading. 🙂

[HDMIGuy]

@Asellus To receive ESPN (not ESPN+) you must have a TV provider.  Hulu, Disney+, etc... are not TV providers.  Verizon is your internet provider and is also NOT a TV provider.  TV providers are cable systems such as Spectrum, Comcast, Cox Cable or streaming services for live TV such as Fubo, YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV, Sling, etc... 

For ESPN+ you need a subscription which may be part of a Hulu, Disney+ bundle or a stand alone ESPN+ subscription.  

[HDMIGuy]

@Asellus I have access to both ESPN and ESPN+ on all of my Roku devices.  However I rarely use the ESPN app on my Roku to watch anything on ESPN since I can watch ESPN using my YouTubeTV app and easily switch channels to NBC, CBS, Fox, TBS, etc....   The ESPN App on Roku is great for any content on ESPN+ and also ESPN3 which does require a TV provider.  Long story short ESPN+ requires a subscription and ESPN requires a separate TV provider such as a cable system.

[Agavrin]

HDMIGuy-While I'm very happy for you and your multiple sources of access, please tell me what your responses' purpose was. I don't have knowledge of half of what you mentioned and simply wish to gain access to ESPN (NOT +, NOT 2, or any of the other ESPN iterations) on my Verizon Fios-connected Roku tv! I already have a provider, as I stated in my post. I still can't get it to authenticate at yhe ESPN site. If you have the exact steps I need to use to make this happen, I would appreciate receiving them. Otherwise, I have no ability to translate what you've already said into actionable steps. (But thanks for the attempt?)

[Asellus]

@HDMIGuy 

I am well aware of how it all works. I might not be as experienced as you, but I have been using the ESPN app for 2 years without problems before this year. ESPN3 does not require a tv provider, but that's besides the point. If you had read the issue tracking thread in my September 7th post, you would realize that. I was trying to help Agavrin as a lot of users had good workarounds in that thread that might work. And Verizon Fios does offer cable, so we don't know that Agavrin doesn't have a cable package. I just assumed I would take Agavrin's word for it since this issue has been going on for months without a fix. If Agavrin read the thread, and there's no workaround that would work, then it is what it is.