Update: Shortly after this story was first publishd on Monday, a spokesperson for Tablo parent company E. W. Scripps said the company plans to address the server outage in a number of ways, to include deploying a software update that will allow customers to watch broadcast TV channels without an active Internet connection. To read the updated story, click or tap here. The original story follows below.
A server outage on Sunday prevented users of the newest-generation Tablo DVR from watching live or recorded programming on their devices.
The outage started Sunday around 12 p.m. Eastern Time (9 a.m. Pacific Time), just as football fans were sitting down to watch games from the National Football League’s (NFL) first week of the regular season on their local CBS and Fox broadcast stations.
The issue primarily impacted users of the fourth-generation Tablo DVR, the newest model that combines broadcast TV channels with free, ad-supported streaming TV (FAST) content from Tablo’s parent, the E. W. Scripps Company, and other partners.
The outage was resolved by Sunday evening, in time for “Sunday Night Football” on NBC.
Really f–ing horrible that @TabloTV picked the first Sunday of the NFL season to have an outage that somehow seems to impact me running an app to connect to hardware I own on the same network.
The support forum has been “support free”.https://t.co/8qZCJQUJr5
— John W Clark 🇺🇦 (@JohnWilburClark) September 8, 2024
If only my @TabloTV worked so I could watch the Vikings game on a tv in my house but it’s only functioning on an iPad right now.
— Dan Pfeiffer MN (@DanPfeiffer_MN) September 8, 2024
Why should we have to ping your server to use Tablo? There should be a local fallback option.
— JoshWx (@Joshs_wx) September 8, 2024
Unlike prior generations of Tablo DVRs, the fourth-generation model requires an active Internet connection to watch any content. Live and recorded events are streamed from the Tablo DVR to any phone, tablet or smart TV with the companion Tablo app installed.
Since it launched last year, the makers of Tablo have been relatively quiet as to why the fourth-generation model requires an Internet connection to watch free broadcast TV, which is received via an antenna. The server outage over the weekend suggests the Tablo must perform a “handshake” with the company’s servers before the companion Tablo app will launch at all — and, if the servers are down, users can’t watch broadcast TV on their device until the situation is resolved.
While the prior versions of Tablo’s DVR did not require an Internet connection to view broadcast TV, those devices also did not include FAST channels. They also required a subscription to Tablo’s premium guide data, provided by Nielsen’s Gracenote, in order to see TV listings beyond a single day.
A spokesperson for Tablo’s parent company did not return an email inquiry from The Desk on Monday, but shortly after our request for comment, the company posted a note to their social media accounts apologizing for the disruption on Sunday.
“Over the weekend, users were unable to access the Tablo app,” the message said. “This was the result of a problem with our servers and has been resolved. We apologize for any frustration or inconvenience this may have caused, and are investigating ways to be more responsive and avoid issues like this in the future.”
The outage comes amid a major marketing campaign positioning Tablo as a way to watch free broadcast and streaming channels across most major connected screens. Scripps regularly airs commercial spots for Tablo on its own digital broadcast and streaming TV networks — including Ion, Laff, Scripps News and Court TV — and sells the devices next to cord-cutter gadgets at retail stores like Best Buy and Amazon.
Last month, Scripps confirmed it is working on a version of the fourth-generation Tablo DVR for cable TV and broadband Internet companies, one that will allow those service providers to offer low-cost pay TV bundles to customers.
