ESPN3: We Have a Deal, But It’s Going to Take Time to Implement

Sep 15 2010

By: Jeff Simmermon at 12:56 pm

ESPN3: We Have a Deal, But It’s Going to Take Time to Implement

Since about thirty seconds after we signed the deal with Disney/ESPN last week, we’ve been getting the question:

When can we expect to see ESPN3?

The other question we’ve been getting has been:

Do I have to be a video subscriber to get ESPN3, or is it available to RoadRunner-only customers?

Here’s the deal — Time Warner Cable is really, really excited to use the Internet to enhance the video packages that our customers buy from us. ESPN3 allows us to do just that. Because we see ESPN3 as an extension of our video product, we are making its available to all of our customers who subscribe to ESPN, instead of tying it to customers’ broadband subscriptions. ESPN360 will not be available to RoadRunner only customers.

We think it makes more sense to enhance the video products that our customers have already signed up for rather than to impose the service on every single one of our broadband customers, regardless of their interest. There are those among you who may say “well hang on, I pay for TV channels I don’t want. How is this different?”

AS of right now, we think that the television and the Internet business are different. While you may be able to stream video online, it’s still video. Even though we all pay for a lot of TV channels we don’t watch, the amount of TV channels available to a cable customer is finite — in Brooklyn, I get hundreds of channels. There are a hell of a lot more web sites that I don’t visit than there are TV channels I don’t watch. I can’t even imagine what would happen if you had to start paying for web sites you don’t use.

No matter what you might think, none of us want this to come true.

We do not currently have a concrete timeline for when ESPN3 will be available to our customers. Here’s why:

Time Warner Cable customers will have to authenticate to see ESPN3 — in other words, log into the site with a username and password much the same way that you’d use My Services or pay a bill. When you do this, computers on our backend infrastructure and on ESPN’s backend infrastructure perform a rapid, complicated handshake and after a few seconds you’re watching all the sports you can handle.

That last sentence was very easy for me to type and is very complicated to actually implement. Authenticated video on this scale is new for us, and it’s new for ESPN, too. It’s new for the entire MSO business. We’ve done some stuff like this with our TV Everywhere trials and also with the most recent winter Olympics. We learned a lot from both of those experiences, and we’re applying these lessons to this, too.

Both Time Warner Cable and ESPN have teams working as hard as humans can work in order to make this happen. Unfortunately, I don’t know how long it will take to make this happen. As many of you in the technology community know, things can work perfectly in a dev environment, work fine in beta, and then go completely pear-shaped in a live environment.

I know this is frustrating to anxious fans, but please keep in mind that an authenticated video offering of this size and scope is unprecedented in our industry. Once we figure out how to make this work for all of our customers, the linear feeds of ESPN 1, ESPN2, and ESPNU will also be available to our customers online — so there is that to look forward to.

We understand that there may be games slated to appear on ESPN3.com that are of particular importance to certain geographic areas. Where that is the case we are working hard with ESPN to find an alternate way for our customers to see those games.

We hope you understand our position here. We’re working as hard as we can right now to bring you the content you want, but it’s going to take a little time to make it work right from an operations perspective. We’re sorry if this causes any inconvenience.

Categories: Content Delivery, Cool Stuff, Fact-Checking, Future of the Industry, Product Launches, Retransmission Consent

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164 Responses to “ESPN3: We Have a Deal, But It’s Going to Take Time to Implement”

Brandon
Oct 07, 2010
at 9:40 am

@Jeff Simmermon

Do you guys have any new updates to share regarding ESPN3? I am just curious to know. I can also understand why it will take time to implement, but im just wondering. I can also understand where you are going to net neutraility too. I wouldn’t like to see that happen, but it looks like its headed that way. Thanks!
Upset Customer
Oct 07, 2010
at 11:58 am

@Simmermon

You are 1000% correct that TWC stance with ESPN3 is just another log on the fire.

I do not have nor do I want a cable subscription with TWC, but since RR is the only option in my area, I have no other choice for High Speed Internet.

Currently I use the remote access feature (ridiculous that I have to even do it) to bypass TWC and I am able to watch ESPN3 but I want to use it via my Xbox 360.

My issue is not that you want your customers to have a choice, I am more than happy to play an additional $2 or $3 per month for ESPN3 but trying to strong arm me into buying your cable service is unacceptable.

As soon as FIOS is available in my area (which is early next year) you will lose me as a customer and I promise I will not be the only person to do so.
Upset Customer
Oct 07, 2010
at 12:10 pm

play = pay
Brandon
Oct 07, 2010
at 12:17 pm

What exactly is a “video” subscriber? I have Time Warner Cable service for both my Internet service as well as my digital cable service. Does that make me a “video” subscriber? If not, how does one become a “video” subscriber?
Michael
Oct 07, 2010
at 1:32 pm

Wow. This is bad news. Will be canceling RR and moving to Uverse.
Jeff Simmermon
Oct 07, 2010
at 1:37 pm

I’m just referring to people who get purchase cable from us.
Joseph
Oct 07, 2010
at 2:20 pm

I’m a Bright House customer, but they follow in TWC’s footsteps. I contacted them via chat:

——————————
Me: I cannot watch the streaming content on espn3.com when will this be available

BrightHouse Rep: Thank you for contacting Bright House Networks Live Chat.

BrightHouse Rep: I will be glad to assist you with that.

BrightHouse Rep: ESPN is updating their databases for our customers. Unfortunately, I do not have any information as to when it will be available.

Me: Brighthouse doesn’t have an anticipated date?

Me: I thought the deal was done 5 weeks ago?

BrightHouse Rep: The deal was done but we are are waiting on them.

BrightHouse Rep: We have no control over their website.

Me: So it’s in ESPN’s hands?

BrightHouse Rep: Yes.
————————-

Is this true that the current holdup is at ESPN? Or is this just a case of passing the buck?

BTW, the rep still wasn’t able to even hint at an anticipated date for availablility…
Upset Customer
Oct 07, 2010
at 6:09 pm

@Simmermon

and as a non purchase cable customer, why are you not providing me the option to pay for ESPN3 if you are hell bent on not charging all your customers for the service?

If it’s all about choice then give me the option of getting ESPN3 without overcharging by forcing me to get your cable package?
Mike
Oct 07, 2010
at 6:15 pm

Sorry, TWC. Your plan for ESPN3 is on par with your customer service: awful. Some day you guys might figure out that your customers really dont like what you provide. The value proposition is pathetic, and once your customers find alternatives they will jump at the chance to leave. Don’t you think it would be smarter to provide a value proposition that endears your customer base to be loyal?
Upset Customer #10974592...
Oct 07, 2010
at 6:16 pm

This is the last straw Time Warner. I’ve been a loyal customer for quite some time, and the only reason is I have no alternative in my area just yet. However AT&T U-Verse is headed my way in a short while so you will have me no longer. I am a Road Runner only customer because I cut cable service to save money in this economy, and I get more content online that I want than through your cable service. I was excited to hear about ESPN3.com until I found out you are requiring cable service to get the website. So let me get this straight, I cannot access a website on my internet service, but my grandmother who doesn’t have any need or want for internet service can get ESPN3.com if she chooses too? WHAT SENSE DOES THAT MAKE?!? You said it was an extension of your video service, so what is ABC, FOX, CBS, etc. sites who offer episodes online? I consider that streaming video, so ESPN3.com is any different? May your company lose many customers over this.
LTS
Oct 07, 2010
at 7:10 pm

This is an absolute joke. If I had TV service but NOT Road Runner ESPN3 would be useless to me. You are tying an Internet service to a television service.

Right now we’ve got no options in Rochester, NY. Frontier (DSL) is a bigger joke. Good news is in 2 months we’ll have Verizon 4G service and I suppose I will have to switch.

And if that means my Xbox Live experience dies? Then Microsoft loses out. And if I can’t get ESPn3? then so be it.. Disney loses out.

In the end you will just piss off more customers than you will make happy. Time Warner doesn’t get it. The market’s changing, accept it and find new places for revenue. Your TV service IS going to die stop trying to save it by crossing one service with another.

It was bad enough with the bandwidth caps which were so restrictive it would have practically forced anyone who subscribed to a video service online to stop using it.

Stop screwing the customers.. period.
Not happy
Oct 07, 2010
at 8:41 pm

My RR service just went up by $5 and TWC is blocking me from viewing a website? Correct me if I’m wrong here but http://www.espn3.com is a web site that provides streaming video, like a lot of sites do. It’s just data that is coming through a copper cable that Im paying to access all of it. Go to espn3.com and look at the list of cable providers that allow access to espn3. TWC is the only one I can see that isnt on the list. Now I’m not sure if the others are tying their access to being a cable subscriber but this just seems criminal to infringe on access to web content and trying to tie it to an unrelated service.
Ticked off in Glendora
Oct 07, 2010
at 8:44 pm

I love how TWC always tries to make it sound like they are only looking out for their customers and not wanting to unfairly bill them when everything points to the other way around. At least admit that you are trying to make more money with the policies you enact.

Besides points made on some of the comments I read, it’s laughable that TWC says they don’t want to “…impose the service on every single one of our broadband customers…” when this is a broadband service through ESPN. So, it’s a compliment to video subscribers. What if that video subscriber doesn’t have internet access also? You’re subjecting them to the cost when they can’t use it. Stop pretending to care about saving the customer money when it’s the opposite!!! Do you think we’re stupid? If we’re reading press releases, we probably aren’t.

Also stop talking fiscal responsibility when you’re prices and service really aren’t any different than other providers that offer more service. I’d already be with them if I wasn’t forced to use TWC for high speed access.
JCI
Oct 07, 2010
at 11:56 pm

I can almost guarantee you the reason they want to use authentication (sign in) is to better track who’s using it and for how long. As they continue to roll out consumption based billing, you will pay for all that bandwidth you are using while watching streamed video.