Disney/ABC Television Group Opens Up Authenticated WATCH Service

NEW YORK: To coincide with ABC’s Upfront presentation, Disney/ABC Television Group is making its WATCH ABC authenticated service available for free in select parts of the U.S.

Starting May 14, viewers in the New York City area can access WATCH ABC via WABC-TV, and those in Philadelphia can through WPVI. This is part of a special open access preview running through the end of June.

The new WATCH ABC service allows fans to have live access to their favorite ABC shows and local market programming, as well as a variety of on-demand content. Viewers can access WATCH ABC online at ABC.com or through an app on iOS or Kindle Fire devices. The app will be coming to Samsung Galaxy devices this summer.

Also this summer, WATCH ABC will roll out in six other ABC-owned station markets: Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco, Houston, Raleigh-Durham and Fresno.

“WATCH ABC is a game-changing innovation for the broadcast television industry. We’re extremely excited to offer this open access preview to our WABC and WPVI viewers in New York and Philadelphia. This announcement represents a defining moment in technology and distribution, as well as for our advertising and affiliate partners, as we ensure that our high-quality content is available to viewers on a variety of devices,” said Anne Sweeney, co-chair of Disney Media Networks and president of Disney/ABC Television Group. “Our mission with this special preview is to gather key learnings about the service and the consumers who utilize it in order for our WATCH products to be the gold standard experience of authenticated multiplatform viewing.”