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Time Warner Cable’s TV Everywhere authentication system went live today for customers, who can now access several channels of ESPN on their broadband connection, assuming they can prove they subscribe to a video package that includes ESPN.
Time Warner’s agreement with Disney-ABC, which owns ESPN, made online viewing possible for Time Warner Cable subscribers. Viewers can authenticate themselves by visiting ESPN’s website and invoking the live video player, which will connect with Time Warner Cable’s MyServices website. Just log in and Time Warner will send authorization to ESPN to unlock the video streams to watch. There is no additional charge for this service.
Earlier, there was some confusion over whether broadband-only customers could have access. A message on ESPN’s website indicates the answer is no — you must be a Time Warner Cable customer with at least Standard Service to get authenticated.
Unfortunately, once logged in and watching, the results were underwhelming, at least for ESPN3. The picture quality from Stop the Cap!‘s Brighton, N.Y., headquarters was dreadful, even from a Road Runner Turbo account. A “signal strength meter” barely moved into second position about five minutes after I started watching.
Results were much better for ESPN’s primary channel feed, currently showing a football game between the New York Giants and the Dallas Cowboys. That managed to peg the meter one position from maximum. On a 28″ LCD monitor, the picture looked reasonably good, but frankly not as impressive as either Netflix streaming or Hulu. Pixel problems and other video artifacts were far too common. But for on-the-go-viewing, the results were adequate.
Commercial breaks were replaced with either ESPN’s logo or, in the case of the football game, short ad spots for NFL gear. Watching a slowly moving logo for two plus minutes in uncomfortable silence, especially with a group, can be unnerving enough to actually prefer the commercials.
The results for ESPN3, "powered by Time Warner Cable" were unimpressive, with a "signal strength" meter showing just a single bar on our 15/1Mbps Road Runner service.
Things looked better on ESPN's primary network, which managed to peg the signal strength meter to one position below maximum.
I think your comment about being useful while on the go is very valid, useful too for watching in at work (not that I would dream of doing that) Your comment of watching the non commercials made me laugh, I am hardly likely to invite a group of people around to watch Monday night Football on my computer forsaking my 52 inch HD TV in the same room!
My experience with the ESPN3 feed was not the same as yours. I watched that same entire Soccer game and found the quality pretty good, although not quite as nice as the regular ESPN feed I am watching right now.
I watched it all on my wireless G home network So far, I am pleased.
I can’t see this as I don’t have an account but it’s included with my apt
Phil, I see the same problem with ESPN3. I don’t know what is up with the site that causes the lower video quality even on connections capable of handing the highest quality stream such as my Frontier line, but I find that often times I’m streaming from a CDN Server all the way in Washington state biting 100-130ms of latency. That will obviously affect video quality since ESPN3 determines the video quality themselves. I hate that option as back when the new player was in Beta, I tried it out and was able to choose a quality I knew my… Read more »
I switched to FIOS internet (good bye Time Warner Cable and your determination to make customers pay for cable tv if they need to watch online video!) and I neither have to sign in to watch ESPN3 nor have to subscribe to cable tv. ESPN3 has an outstanding HD quality (I connect it to my TV through HDMI). My TV has an excellent reception of all local channels (including HD whenever in broadcast). I don’t worry about not watching any sports finals because a cable company does not make a deal with somebody. Everybody should have an antenna for $… Read more »
http://tinyurl.com/338wp4q
“From “TV Everywhere” perspectives, new authenticated services will give Verizon’s FiOS TV customers the capabilities to watch ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPN Goal Line and ESPN Buzzer Beater live online on their PC, or on Internet devices like tablets. The telco’s video customers will be able to access the programming via ESPN’s websites, as well as FiOS TV Online in the coming months, according to the parties.”
Its coming to FIOS TV too
What’s frustrating about this deal is that it punishes people who don’t bundle services. I pay for television, I pay for Internet. I, however, choose to pay two different companies — Time Warner Cable makes the most sense for my Internet access, and DirecTV makes more sense for me for television, even if I pay a slight premium, this way. Because ESPN3 access is governed by both your choice of ISP and television provider, and the actual rules vary by provider, I’m locked out of the site despite carrying service from a participating provider. I hate the whole business model… Read more »