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The media pundit's pundit. Written by NYC insider Jeff Jarvis, BuzzMachine covers news, media, journalism, and politics.

Hey, ABC News: Real sucks!

11 comments on Hey, ABC News: Real sucks!

Hey, ABC News: Real sucks!

: I just went through consumer hell with Real trying to watch the segment on my FCC scoop on ABC World News Tonight. I tried to subscribe to ABC NewsNow for $40 a year but that didn’t work and so I then had to subscribe to ABC SuperDuperPassGas or whatever the hell they call it for another too-many bucks per month. And then I had to download software three times. And then I had to walk through glass to watch two minutes. And then when I tried to cancel it all, I had to stay on hold on not one but two calls to Real for 40 friggin’ minutes. Real sucks. Real Audio sucks. Real Video sucks.

ABC News: Please follow my advice below. You’re pissing off your viewers/customers/audience/public and not making much money from Real — right? — when, instead, you could use your public to market and distribute your brand and product. Make us your ally, not your enemy, eh?

11 responses to “Hey, ABC News: Real sucks!”

  1. jonny Avatar
    jonny

    Hallelujah!

  2. unreal Avatar
    unreal

    real is the worst

  3. / Avatar
    /

    Not to mention CBS, NBC, FNC, BBC, CNBC, NYT and NPR offer free audio/video. . . though MSNBC/NBC is Windows only. Shame.

  4. C Bassett Avatar
    C Bassett

    The really sad thing is some of these websites offer really great content, but since it requires Real, it’s just not worth it.
    NASCAR.com(yes, I’m a NASCAR fan. No shame in it!) has Trackpass, which uses GPS technology to track all cars on the track, tracks their position, their speed and RPMs, braking, in-car radio and the NASCAR radio broadcast. Great, great ideas, and it works great… once you jump through all of Reals many, many hoops. After a couple weeks, I just couldn’t take dealing with their player anymore. Hopefully NASCAR.com will wise up as well in the near future, but I doubt it.
    And yes, you have to call to cancel! Horribly annoying. Their website tricks you. “Click here to cancel”, or whatever the link says on their site says. And you put in your information, and then it asks you to type out why you want to cancel. So you either tell the truth or make something up or give them a piece of your mind. On the next screen, you find out that all of what you just did was just completely useless in your quest to cancel your Real subscription. “Please call 1-800-xxxx to cancel”.
    Real does suck.

  5. Cartman Avatar
    Cartman

    dammit I hate you real. haha you suck.

  6. Brett Avatar
    Brett

    Amen. I tried Real’s two-week Superpass trial, but all of the video that they offer is at least 24-48 hours old. No bargain whatsoever.
    During that time, I tried their RealPlayer for purchasing/downloading music. Real forces a two-second pause between songs unless you spend yet more money. But I didn’t understand that, so I tried their tech support to find the source of the two-second pause. But the support was awful – some woman in India who didn’t get anything I said. Horrible experience. After repeated attempts to communicate, a supervisor finally told me about the pause.
    If anyone from Real reads this, your product sucks, your tech support sucks, and your content sucks.

  7. hugh macleod Avatar
    hugh macleod

    Oy, what, you’re expecting ABC to get it, right?
    Good luck ;-)
    Hey, Peter Jennings, if the news you’re showing is so IMPORTANT, then pray tell, why are you interupting it every three minutes with Dristan commercials?
    Is it just me, or is that a major disconnect?

  8. Scott Avatar
    Scott

    As a Mac, Solaris, and Linux user I much prefer to RealPlayer to Windows Media Player. I was agrivated by some of Real’s tricks in the past, but it is my preferred options these days.
    Real comes with built-in support for the most video and audio foramts now. The Windows version caches streaming content. The Mac web browser plug-in lets me full screen the video. Who else supports the Linux users?
    I used RealPlayer to watch the World Series on my Mac from Italy this year and had a wonderful experience.

  9. Angelos Avatar
    Angelos

    Death to Real!
    Any company that is Real only, I don’t see their content. Somehow I survive.
    How Real is still around, I’ll never understand.

  10. Ronit Avatar
    Ronit

    Amen, Jeff. Real sucks. I went through the 40-minute wait for someone at their call-centre to pick up the phone and cancel my account just last week.

  11. John Avatar
    John

    Real sucks. It has always sucked. I expect it will always suck. I simply won’t allow Real on my PC, evermore.