ESPN+ is garbage

[jujigatame]

I started the 7-day free trial today to watch the Inoue/McDonnell fight. Since the fight was on very early in the US, by the time I got to it, it was already a "replay". The replay was incomplete, it did not include the undercard fight. Next to the event name it says the video is 1:25:32, but when you actually go to watch the video itself, it's only 28:49. So for some reason they cut the undercard bout out of the replay? Why would they do that?

The worst part is that I can't even find a support email address. You'd think for a pay service, they'd make it pretty easy to contact them with issues, but all I can find is an FAQ which doesn't include any contact information.

Great job, ESPN. I'll keep the 7-day trial just to watch the Ancajas/Sultan fight, but no way I'm paying for this.

[armageto]

I'm waiting on the Crawford/Horn to start the trial. After that I'll wait for a top notch fight or for them to make improvements to the site.

[jujigatame]

It just make no sense. Paying for the rights to stream lower weight title fights from Asia is an obvious appeal to hardcore boxing fans, so why alienate those same fans by not allowing them to watch replays of undercard bouts? So stupid.

[SenorPipino]

It just make no sense. Paying for the rights to stream lower weight title fights from Asia is an obvious appeal to hardcore boxing fans, so why alienate those same fans by not allowing them to watch replays of undercard bouts? So stupid.

But the entire undercard was shown on the live feed?

[jujigatame]

It just make no sense. Paying for the rights to stream lower weight title fights from Asia is an obvious appeal to hardcore boxing fans, so why alienate those same fans by not allowing them to watch replays of undercard bouts? So stupid.

But the entire undercard was shown on the live feed?

I believe at least the Shiro/Lopez fight was. It was mentioned in all the press releases about the card being streamed on ESPN+.

[SenorPipino]

It just make no sense. Paying for the rights to stream lower weight title fights from Asia is an obvious appeal to hardcore boxing fans, so why alienate those same fans by not allowing them to watch replays of undercard bouts? So stupid.

But the entire undercard was shown on the live feed?

I believe at least the Shiro/Lopez fight was. It was mentioned in all the press releases about the card being streamed on ESPN+.

On the regular ESPN network I notice that its fight cards are usually replayed on ESPN II several hours later.

The rebroadcast is also whittled down and edited.

I'm afraid that ESPN + will also trim its rebroadcast for time purposes.

You'll just have to make it a point to watch the cards live if you want to see them in their entirety.

It's still very cheap at $5 monthly or $50 if you sign up for a year.

[jujigatame]

Sure you can edit the broadcast for time, but eliminating a whole fight? That's bullshit.

I sometimes buy a 1-month UFC Fight Pass subscription when there's something interesting on, and it's just a far superior service right now. The replays are full cards, and the cards are all indexed so you can quickly switch between fights on a card without randomly clicking around to try and figure out at what point in the video the fights begin/end.

I managed to finally figure out how to contact ESPN support and lodge a complaint, so we'll see what they say.

[jujigatame]

Response from ESPN support makes no sense:

We apologize for the inconvenience you are experiencing. Unfortunately the precards are available with ESPN and the main fight is available with ESPN+. We do appreciate your feedback and will look into making possible adjustments.

That kind of implies the undercard is available to watch elsewhere, but there is no separate listing for it anywhere on ESPN+ or the greater WatchESPN site.

Bottom line seems to be, unless you can watch live, don't expect to be able to watch any undercard fights on ESPN+.

[oogiebe]

I started the 7-day free trial today to watch the Inoue/McDonnell fight. Since the fight was on very early in the US, by the time I got to it, it was already a "replay". The replay was incomplete, it did not include the undercard fight. Next to the event name it says the video is 1:25:32, but when you actually go to watch the video itself, it's only 28:49. So for some reason they cut the undercard bout out of the replay? Why would they do that?

The worst part is that I can't even find a support email address. You'd think for a pay service, they'd make it pretty easy to contact them with issues, but all I can find is an FAQ which doesn't include any contact information.

Great job, ESPN. I'll keep the 7-day trial just to watch the Ancajas/Sultan fight, but no way I'm paying for this.

EPSN is absolutely garbage. It's so bad it keeps hurting the stock of it's parent company, Disney. Every earnings call everyone waits for the bad news from Disney's awful subsidiary. They are trash. It was the greatest several decades ago. Alas...it's not getting any better with their poor use of poor apps and TV viewing. Yuck!

[SenorPipino]

I started the 7-day free trial today to watch the Inoue/McDonnell fight. Since the fight was on very early in the US, by the time I got to it, it was already a "replay". The replay was incomplete, it did not include the undercard fight. Next to the event name it says the video is 1:25:32, but when you actually go to watch the video itself, it's only 28:49. So for some reason they cut the undercard bout out of the replay? Why would they do that?

The worst part is that I can't even find a support email address. You'd think for a pay service, they'd make it pretty easy to contact them with issues, but all I can find is an FAQ which doesn't include any contact information.

Great job, ESPN. I'll keep the 7-day trial just to watch the Ancajas/Sultan fight, but no way I'm paying for this.

EPSN is absolutely garbage. It's so bad it keeps hurting the stock of it's parent company, Disney. Every earnings call everyone waits for the bad news from Disney's awful subsidiary. They are trash. It was the greatest several decades ago. Alas...it's not getting any better with their poor use of poor apps and TV viewing. Yuck!

And they charge the cable companies a fortune to carry it.

More than $9 monthly for its various networks. And yet it has lost more than 12 million subscribers in the past 6 years.

In comparison FOX sports charges less than $2 for its networks.

I think that they've axed half the staff in Bristol during recent years.

[Mexi-Box]

I would've loved it if it had NFL, basketball, etc. highlights and the full shows like Pardon the Interruption, etc. The fact that it only shows boxing and some lowly viewed sports makes me never want to buy it.

I don't even think I'll do the free trial for Horn/Crawford. Probably wait for a better fight, maybe Matthysse/Pacquiao.

[jujigatame]

The fact that boxing is a focus for their new streaming service, but they've made it unfriendly to hardcore boxing fans, is very strange. Hopefully they change their policy about undercards.

[Mexi-Box]

The fact that boxing is a focus for their new streaming service, but they've made it unfriendly to hardcore boxing fans, is very strange. Hopefully they change their policy about undercards.

Boxing isn't their focus. It's pretty much all non-mainstream sports. They just announced UFC will be featured as well. I might just buy it if they show some good UFC fights, though.

Sucks that they don't just include the entire ESPN lineup with it.

[Boxing Prospect]

To put into perspective of the complaint... Only 3 fights from the show were shown in Japan, and one of those was on delay. Kuwahara and Tameda weren't shown at all despite both being exciting fighters

[jujigatame]

The fact that boxing is a focus for their new streaming service, but they've made it unfriendly to hardcore boxing fans, is very strange. Hopefully they change their policy about undercards.

Boxing isn't their focus. It's pretty much all non-mainstream sports. They just announced UFC will be featured as well. I might just buy it if they show some good UFC fights, though.

Sucks that they don't just include the entire ESPN lineup with it.

I wonder how this will interact with UFC Fight Pass. Right now FP is a far superior service, I hope this move doesn't mess it up.

[Best Coast]

ESPN has been steadily losing subscribers due to their price-gouging and politics.

[jujigatame]

To put into perspective of the complaint... Only 3 fights from the show were shown in Japan, and one of those was on delay. Kuwahara and Tameda weren't shown at all despite both being exciting fighters

But Ishida/Lopez II was a pretty big fight. A title fight between arguably the #1 and #2 guys at 108. Not cool at all for them to cut it out of the rebroadcast.

[jujigatame]

Also I got home at 12:30 tonight and tried to watch the Sultan/Ancajas fight. The replay was not available yet and you couldn't rewatch the live stream, so there's no way to watch the fight. Maybe they'll put up the replay tomorrow morning? So far I am extremely unimpressed with this service.

[Ruthless-RKO]

Also I got home at 12:30 tonight and tried to watch the Sultan/Ancajas fight. The replay was not available yet and you couldn't rewatch the live stream, so there's no way to watch the fight. Maybe they'll put up the replay tomorrow morning? So far I am extremely unimpressed with this service.

They've only just launched it a month ago. It's bound to have teething problems and they're going to get a ton of feedback on it. Changes will be made.

[Perseus]

Also I got home at 12:30 tonight and tried to watch the Sultan/Ancajas fight. The replay was not available yet and you couldn't rewatch the live stream, so there's no way to watch the fight. Maybe they'll put up the replay tomorrow morning? So far I am extremely unimpressed with this service.

They've only just launched it a month ago. It's bout to have teething problems and they're going to get a ton of feedback on it. Changes will be made.

They'll have too if they want it to survive. Between this site, a few others and talking to a few people who have tried this app I have not read or heard a single conversation about this app that was positive.

[diddy]

Who would pay for this crap? Just stream it on your device or your laptop.

[jujigatame]

So I'm watching Ancajas/Sultan now, they put the replay up overnight. On the upside, the kept the Yafai/Carmona fight on the replay. So that's good. But on the downside, I've noticed that there are actually commercials on the feed. Thankfully not between rounds, but one would think there should not be any commercials whatsoever on a pay service.

[Best Coast]

BAD NEWS!!

I just checked the TV listings for Sat June 9 and it looks like NONE of the ESPN television channels will be televising the Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn fight!!

So looks like these greedy bastards at ESPN are deliberately holding boxing fans hostage > if they want to see Crawford-Horn they will NEED to get this ridiculous ESPN+ app!!

Hopefully the fight will be bootlegged by one or more of the many free streamlinks!!

[SenorPipino]

BAD NEWS!!

I just checked the TV listings for Sat June 9 and it looks like NONE of the ESPN television channels will be televising the Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn fight!!

So looks like these greedy bastards at ESPN are deliberately holding boxing fans hostage > if they want to see Crawford-Horn they will NEED to get this ridiculous ESPN+ app!!

Hopefully the fight will be bootlegged by one or more of the many free streamlinks!!

It hasn't been a secret that Crawford-Horn would be app-only.

ESPN has been touting the fight as a means to get viewers to purchase the new $4.99 monthly stream.

It appears that the marquee TR fighters will appear strictly on the app, although Arum has made some vague overtures about Lomachenko possibly boxing on the network if he returns in December.

To save you from having to pour through the July listings, Pacquiao-Matthysse will also be on PPV app.

That's if the fight actually comes off.

You can always time your free ESPN+ 7 day trial to fall the week of Crawford-Horn.

[Best Coast]

BAD NEWS!!

I just checked the TV listings for Sat June 9 and it looks like NONE of the ESPN television channels will be televising the Terence Crawford-Jeff Horn fight!!

So looks like these greedy bastards at ESPN are deliberately holding boxing fans hostage > if they want to see Crawford-Horn they will NEED to get this ridiculous ESPN+ app!!

Hopefully the fight will be bootlegged by one or more of the many free streamlinks!!

It hasn't been a secret that Crawford-Horn would be app-only.

ESPN has been touting the fight as a means to get viewers to purchase the new $4.99 monthly stream.

It appears that the marquee TR fighters will appear strictly on the app, although Arum has made some vague overtures about Lomachenko possibly boxing on the network if he returns in December.

To save you from having to pour through the July listings, Pacquiao-Matthysse will also be on PPV app.

That's if the fight actually comes off.

You can always time your free ESPN+ 7 day trial to fall the week of Crawford-Horn.

Thanks anyway bro. I think I'll watch them both on one of the numerous free streamlinks.

I never intended to get the app (especially after reading all the comments in this thread) but merely checked the TV listings as a means of confirming my suspicion that ESPN would be holding fans hostage with this.