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Why You Can’t Watch ABC Online

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.

ABC has changed the rules of streaming their shows. Here's what you need to know about the new 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.

Streaming has 6 commercial breaks per hour show

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.

ABC shows less than a week old require verification to watch

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.

Cable partners that will allow you to watch ABC online

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.

Sign in to your cable account to watch ABC shows online

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.

Daily shows on ABC expire before you can watch them if you don't subscribe to cable

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.

How do you feel about the ABC app? How do you deal with the restrictions?

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  1. Mike says:

    Thanks for taking the time to write this. I am one of those many ABC supporters who is now completely frustrated due to the GIANT leap backward they have taken.

    One thing you stated was that ABC does not obtain enough money from their commercials for streaming online content and, although that may be true, a few years ago this station and ALL of its content was free with rabbit ears and there were commercials all the same. Then the whole ‘HD’ content came around and more people purchased cable subscription service. Lately, as the baby boomer generation is starting to die out and the next generation is rising, the number of individuals in their 20s – early 30s who actually pay for TV subscription is at a record low.

    The problem with this is the cable companies are biting their nails and have become so desperate that they began to charge the studios more money to broadcast their content (Subscriptions lowered so price for the studios, as well as the consumer, went up).

    Recently the whole networks dropping themselves out of the network of subscription service providers was an attempt at lowering the cost they have to fork out for the network to air their content. That essentially back-fired on ABC because the networks just simply told them they have to take down their free content online in order to lower their rates. ABC complied and now they are able to pay less to deliver their content.

    Who gets to suffer because of this move? The consumer…. you and I. It’s highly unfortunate to see ABC joining the network bandwagon and screwing millions of viewers over.

    For the record, I WILL NEVER PAY FOR TV…. EVER! I am the next generation and we demand our TV shows back.

    • Laura says:

      I am the older generation and I do not pay for TV and I won’t. Most of my friends have cut the cord also. We just have way better things to do with our lives and money than to pay for TV. I hope that the entertainment world remembers that there was a time when TV didn’t exist and people got along just fine without it. It’s actually better for families and friends to have time together without the interruption of mindless TV. This will backfire on them, less people willing to pay equals less people seeing their advertisements equals less control on our purchasing power and less control on influencing people to go with the latest trends.

      • Mike says:

        Laura,

        Thanks for your reply. Unfortunately this is not the case with the older generation. Statistically speaking, the baby boomers are what is keeping cable alive. And by cable I mean the current standard of television viewing (cable, satellite, etc). The PROBLEM with this is that they (baby boomers) are not going to die off for another 15 – 20 years, which is highly unfortunate for those of us who don’t even have a television… let alone a ‘cable’ subscription. We young people have quickly adapted and figured out that paying for cable is quite possibly the dumbest thing one could possibly ever do. And for the percentage of people who say they pay to watch sports…. go buy an antenna… all those games are broadcast over the air too… just like the “good ‘ol days”. It costs like $30 on amazon and you get to watch all the sports your heart desires.

        Again, Laura I am not bashing you. I really appreciate that you have seen the light and have cut the cord. Unfortunately you are a VERY small percentage of the older generation. I fear we are going to have to wait another 10 years until cable subscriptions dwindle enough for content delivery to change the game up.

        Oh and back to the topic at hand… Disney / ABC frankly couldn’t care less about people watching their content via the web. The executives (baby boomers) are SO far behind the times that they are holding on to cable due to the fact that they receive FAR more revenue streams through the cable companies still. It’s a sad truth, and unfortunately those of us who don’t pay for content are just going to have to sit back, pirate, watch shows a week later, and wait until they get their act together.

        • jay says:

          There are more of us old folks than you think who have found streaming. We have lots less income to spend on tv than many younger folks so we are motivated too and we are up on technology so please don’t judge us based on the few old people may know. Let’s not put us all in the ground so fast – we have precious years left to live. And BTW you can’t just stream sports whenever and wherever you want to. We have New York teams and we live too far north to pull them in them. So we have to PAY for packages anyway.

        • Lady J says:

          Hi Mike; Just to let you know, I’m a “boomer”, born in 1957. I cut the cable cord and am encouraging my same age co-workers to do the same. Here’s the irony… I called UVerse. Told them I wanted internet ONLY. It’s actually $10 cheaper per month to have basic cable and internet, rather than stand-alone internet. Crazy. OK, they got me. I still have basic cable, but don’t watch it because it looks horrible on my 60″ TV. (no HD). I watch with my Roku … my son pays for Netflix and shares with me, I pay for Hulu plus and share with him. There’s a few ABC shows I would like to see that don’t show up on Hulu, The Middle being one of them. Hilarious show! I couldn’t care less about reality TV, so don’t miss it at all. Love the old shows that they stream… I’m on a Twilight Zone binge right now!

        • Patricia says:

          Wrong. The older generation is not the problem. There is so much trash on tv now. Most of the older generation do not want to watch it. I am the older generation and I don’t pay for trash. I do Netflix because I can watch Andy Griffin, Bonanza, etc. Clean shows so that I will not be embarrassed if my grandchildren walk in the room. Even a lot of the commercials now are trash.

    • Michelle says:

      I’m with you, Mike (obviously).

      I actually stated that *whether* it’s because they don’t earn enough from commercials or… my point there was that their solution to whichever way they choose to look at the problem isn’t the right way to resolve it. If you increase your costs, your revenues by necessity won’t be sufficient. There needs to be a shift change in many industries with regards to expecting customers to simply keep paying more, and television is just one of these. Sports? I can’t afford to take my family to a hockey or football game. Movies? It’s no longer a “hey let’s go tomorrow” thing because tickets are $10 a pop, even for kids because “matinees” have been completely redefined by many theaters. And the list goes on. I’m making different choices, and I know I’m not the only one.

      • Mike says:

        Yeah, I understand that you were speculating the reasons why the studios are doing what they are doing. I was informing you of the real reasons behind it.

        Take ABC Studios, then their own network owned by Disney… Disney bargains their station to the cable company. The cable company states that Disney needs to pay more money now in order for ABC to continue outputting their content. Disney gets upset and says “to hell with you.” They back out until the cable company wants to be reasonable. Then, the cable company turns it around and says *in a whiny voice* “But, but, but…… you guys are streaming tv shows the day after they air so more and more people are not paying us money to watch tv *sob*……… (evil scheme) Now you have to take that luxury away from the people, we will lower your cost to us, then we together will take away from the people!!! MWWAHAHAHAHA!!!!”

        Ok, so I have a bit of an imagination… the unfortunate part about that is that it is the truth. Any way, going forward, the day a big studio completely backs out from the cable companies and transfers their content 100% online will be the day that I am happy. I mean, think about it… the studio charges $0.50 per episode of each show they own and VOILÀ! they are now making more money as a studio franchise and there is no more need for the middle man any more; which ultimately pans out to be less cost to the consumer! It’s a Win-Win-Lose situation! (with the losing going to the greedy and self-serving cable company)

        So yeah, I am going to be incredibly happy when either a major sports network or a news/tv show broadcast company chooses to lead the way into the future of online streaming.

        Not too mention, I will be one of the first individuals to purchase an Ultra HD tv that comes out with full computation features in it (essentially an all-in-one TV, computer, media center, etc). Get cracking Apple! 🙂

        • ExtortionIsBadMkay says:

          Yes, definitely. Thanks for the info, Mike. Your suggestion of $0.50 per episode… I would do that! That comes out to less than $10/month.

          Currently, I use… other… “non-approved” sites to stream my shows. I pay nothing, and I can usually see my shows the day after they air.

        • Michelle says:

          Wow that’s a lot of info. Thanks for the detail behind all this. I knew some of it, but… the business model is so messed up. I love your creativity in the personalities you shared. And YES – how fun will it be when you can truly choose what you want to watch and only pay for that. MLB.tv is a start – and we subscribe – but it’s just a start! I have full confidence that it will come one day.

  2. Dale says:

    Very well written,
    I am planning on cutting the cord here very soon. This still does not discourage me.
    I think the cable companies and networks have teamed up to try to hold on to what control they still have left.
    My family does not watch television live anymore, it is to inconvenient. I do not mind commercials but I am not paying for a subscription service that has you watch commercials (even if the commercials are catered to your liking). Not to mention the Subscription service is owned by the television networks and some cable companies.

    If it means waiting 7 days oh well, if it is taken down before that I will just stop watching that show. I love television entertainment but if a network or networks are going to make it more difficult to watch their content. They are losing me for current shows that I watch and any future shows they produce.

    Thanks again for such a great article. So full of information.

    • Michelle says:

      Thank you, Dale! I hope that it helps, and I am with you on the paying for subscription services. I actually don’t subscribe even to Netflix or Amazon Prime or Hulu+ and can watch everything I “need” to. I think the part so many companies are missing is that their product isn’t NECESSARY, and by increasing the difficulty in obtaining it, they simply are losing customers rather than getting more money for their product. Too many of us won’t pay it.

  3. jodifur says:

    While I love this post 100% as I fellow cable cutter, and was steaming ALL WEEK, my cbs ap doesn’t require cable verification. I’m just glad they put General Hospital on Hulu plus. They spent all week saying it was on Hulu Plus and it wasn’t and then it finally was.

    Also, my mom has a valid cable provider and says she can’t event get the ap to work!

    You should really watch the Good Wife on CBS. It is a fantastic show.

    • Michelle says:

      Thanks for pointing that out. That was sloppy writing on my part. CBS doesn’t require you to sign in, but they don’t upload shows until a week has passed from the air date, which essentially puts their shows into the same category of delay – though at least they aren’t making it a have/have-not thing depending on your cable situation.

      The app wasn’t working properly the first few days it was out, but the new update (1/10) improved some of those bugs like the sign in issues. She should be able to get in now.

      Hulu+ definitely helps some people, but… I don’t subscribe even to Hulu+, so I’m still out of luck there. Fortunately, I don’t watch that one, but for people who do, it’s a half solution at least.

      • Peter says:

        I watch CBS shows like The Big Bang Theory, NCIS, Person of Interest and How I Met Your Mother and they are all online the day after they air!

        CBS did once wait a week, but that’s a long time ago!

        I do however not know if some shows are different, but these shows are available online (at least on the web page) within the next day!

        I too hate this cable issue and I do hope CBS doesn’t change!

        • Michelle says:

          There is a difference between what is available on the CBS website and streaming via an app. There are some shows that are available immediately after they air on the CBS app, but not all. Two Broke Girls, for example, has the 1/20 episode on the website, but 1/13 episode is the most recent on on the CBS app. I know I’m not alone in tending to watch from my tablet or phone rather than my computer, which is where the challenge comes in.

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