Roku last month dropped Charter’s Spectrum TV app from its Channel Store when it could not reach a new carriage agreement with the cable TV operator. The app, which is still available on Apple TV and other devices, allows Charter’s Spectrum subscribers to watch live TV and On Demand programming without a cable set-top.
Both companies have maintained the app should still be available for Roku owners who downloaded it prior to the Channel Store exit. However, scores of Spectrum customers say their apps have disappeared from their menus although they have done nothing to trigger their removal.
The Roku/Spectrum customers have posted their stories on social media sites, the readers forum here at TV Answer Man, and in several e-mails sent to this reporter.
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“@Ask_Spectrum & @Roku could you kindly put you pettiness to wayside and return the app. It has disappeared from all my menus and is making it impossible for me to watch tv on the last football Sunday of the regular season… thank you from a customer of both your services,” @CJStallman said on Twitter yesterday.
“@Ask_Spectrum Our Roku apps stopped working late last night except for one Roku. The apps are still installed and the Roku account has been active for many years. According to the release on your website, they should still continue to function,” added
@eiddor.
“We had Spectrum app on our Roku, took our Roku with us while on vacation, our Spectrum app on roku kept saying connect to internet to get full access. We signed out and tried to sign back in. Said Spectrum app no longer available. We DID NOT uninstall app and we are current Spectrum customers!” ‘Teresa Williams’ said in a message posted last night at the TV Answer Man forum.
Both Roku and Spectrum have said that if you delete the app, you will not be able to replace it. (The companies say they are trying to negotiate a new deal.) However, the large number of people who say their apps have disappeared even though they didn’t delete them makes some Roku customers suspicious.
“Since Roku was stating that existing users would still be able to use the channel, that would explain why they were removed anyway,” wrote ‘atc98092 on the Roku community forum for Spectrum. “Someone made a mistake about removing existing installations. It was likely human error, and it would be nice if Roku would admit it.”
A Charter Spectrum spokesperson has told the TV Answer Man that the company is not aware of apps being randomly removed by Roku. The streaming device has not commented on the user allegations, but it has referred complaining customers to Charter.
“We recommend you contact Spectrum directly for more information and better insight about their channel on Roku,” Roku’s Twitter customer service team said over the weekend.
Spectrum’s Twitter customer service reiterated that a previously downloaded app should still work without issues.
“Our apologies that our app is not currently available on the Roku…At this time existing Spectrum TV App users will continue to have access on their Roku devices,” @AskSpectrum, the cable op’s Twitter customer service team, told one subscriber yesterday.
Some Spectrum customers say their apps are in their menus, but they can no longer log in.
“I’ve been having difficulty signing in to the spectrum app on Roku. It’s not taking my credentials. It used to work, now it doesn’t,” wrote @mrron9.
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I’m glad I cut the cord last year and don’t have to deal with another dispute between Roku and content/channel providers. Peacock’s was short-lived (annoying but…). The real anger inducer was the battle with HBO/ AT&T. It took forever to get it on Roku. I bought an Amazon stick , just to get those 2 by side loading the app. When I paid a high price for this app, it was inexcusable to be treated this way.
Tho I hate the layout and organization of the max app
What a mess.
I am very upset the Spectrum app was removed from roku
Agreed Can no longer recommend Roku nor will I purchase again. Just bought an Apple TV device.
Me too!!!!!! 🙁
Our Spectrum app on our Roku devices simply wouldn’t work. This after a Spectrum employee told me to buy Roku devices to use the Spectrum app so that we didn’t have to keep renting cable boxes for each of our TVs. Very, very frustrating. Work it out, please. What’s so dumb is that we are almost compelled to have Spectrum in order to use other apps such as HGTV or CBS or the Food Network app. All of those require us to login with our Spectrum account, and those are some favorite channels.
This appears to be a problem with the Spectrum app. My in-laws both have the app on their sticks not removed the app just quit working randomly this past week. When we spoke with them this week they had no excuse other then that their contract ended with Roku not our problem with no further solution.
All I can say is Roku and Spectrum work it out..
Note of caution….
Was last week working on a Spectrum issues on one of my Roku stream device, the spectrum Support said try deleting the app from the Roku device and re-installing it.. boy did I get screwed… lost the app on all of my Roku devices.. The Spectrum Support person was unaware of the App being pulled of the Roku store to re-install. Roku Support was no help, and did not even reply to me from an email I sent them asking to check my account and please put Spectrum back on it.
For Spectrum/Charter, remember you guys wanted out of the cable box and cable cards, so you were all happy for the app on Roku..
About an hour ago my roku spectrum app kept closing out, then wanted me to sign in. Tried to sign in, got an error. So I figured I would see if it needed to be updated. It did, and it updated. Then it wouldn’t let me sign in. So I figured I would delete & reinstall. Well…we all know how that turned out. I am pissed! I’ve had this for a few years now and y’all need to fix it!
I was in the middle of a great show and all of a sudden it stopped and my Roku homepage showed up. My Spectrum app was gone. I tried to reinstall on tv and online but it dpesnt even come up. I have used this app on my Roku fir years and was so mad. I called Spectrum and the lady was very nice. She sent me a link to reinstall and it is now working again-app is back.
Can you share the link
This happened awhile ago and not since, but I will see if I can find the link.
I have a Roku tv and use the Charter Spectrum app rather than the cable box. This happened to me twice. I was also in the middle of a show and the app vanished on its own. I called Charter-Spectrum and they gave me a link to use which reinstalled the app. It then happened again but I saved the link and it worked again. The person told me that as long as you had the app prior to Roku removing Charter from their line-ip, you are grandfathered in.