Amazon has added a new single sign-on feature to all Fire TVs, Fire TV Sticks, and Fire TV Edition televisions through the latest software update, which began rolling out last week. The new feature allows customers to login once with their pay TV provider and be automatically logged into all network apps that support single sign-on. This eliminates the need to tediously activate each app individually.
Hints of Amazon working on a single sign-on feature first surfaced in May of last year. When Amazon announced the new 3rd generation Fire TV later that year they acknowledged that single sign-on capabilities would be coming soon and now they’re here.
The Fire TV’s new single sign-on feature works with most pay TV providers that support single sign-on through Adobe’s TV Everywhere Experience Cloud platform. Some TV providers, such as Comcast, have chosen not to support single sign-on, but an Amazon representative says that “the number of supported TV providers for SSO on Fire TV is on par with or better than the rest of the industry.” Without actually counting every provider on the list, I estimate that there are around 500 participating TV providers.
The network apps that already support single sign-on on Fire TV devices include A&E, AMC, BBC, Bravo, CNN, Cooking Channel, DIY, E!, Food Network, Freeform, Hallmark, HGTV, History, Lifetime, Syfy, Telemundo, Travel Channel, TCM, and USA. Additional networks, such as TBS and TNT, will be adding support soon.
The first time any of the participating apps are launched, you will be asked for your pay TV provider information, even if the app has previously been activated. The interface resembles the Fire TV’s captive portal interface that is used to log into hotel WiFi networks. You’ll be shown your TV provider’s website and use the Fire TV remote to log in. The option to use a cursor is available for any provider websites that don’t work well with just the remote’s directional buttons.
When you log into your pay TV provider once, you’ll automatically be enrolled in the new single sign-on feature. A notification message will appear in the lower right that will take you to a list of additional apps supported by your TV provider. Launching any other participating app after that point will not require any kind of activation, whether you’ve ever used the app before or not. Logging out off any participating app will sign you out of all single sign-on apps.
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Does this work across multiple Fire TVs linked to the same account?
There’s a chance that it needs time to propagate, but when I tried it on two different devices back-to-back, I had to login on each device once.
Will this work for OTT services like sling or hulu live?
It might vary by app, but while testing the Food Network app, I did see PlayStation Vue and Hulu listed, but I did not see Sling TV, YouTube TV, or DirecTV Now listed.
Thanks. I can’t wait to test it out with Hulu when I get home.
DirecTV Now definitely doesn’t work yet. But they still don’t even have the TW TNT/TBS individual sign-ons yet.
As of 1/29/2018 it is working fine on DirecTV Now for me. A couple of the apps seemed not to like the Now login but you only need to find one that will to make it work for all evidentally. There is a way to link a DirecTV Now login to a DirecTV account login which is free and that seems to solve most of the difficult to recognize apps for DTV Now
DirecTV Now shows in Bravo Now app and I was able to log in
I dont think Sling lets you sign on to any apps… sling keeps last few episodes online on their app and have far less commercials than using the tv channel app..
You can use Sling for the ESPN app,but what you can view depends on if you have the Orange or Blue package.
Great. This is the reason why I normally don’t bother with these apps even though I have a active Dish Network sub. HBOGo signs me out so many times I did not bother to use it anymore.
I see Xfinity up there as one of the choices in the second image, But in the article you say Comcast is not supported. I have Xfinity and I thought that is basically just a Branding name of Comcast?
Comcast and Xfinity are the same company as far I ever knew.
I’m not positive, but I believe Comcast/Xfinity can be used to login to apps individually, but it won’t do it automatically for single sign-on apps. The screenshot above is from the Food Network app, so it may also be that Comcast/Xfinity doesn’t support all SSO apps.
Any chance of these apps that stream live , added to the new Amazon guide.
There’s always a chance. It’s up to the networks themselves, so if you want to see one in the new guide, you’re best bet is to tell the network.
I would have led with “Not Currently Supported By Comcast” in the title. While I’m not a fan of Comcast, they are, unquestionably, the largest ISP in the United States. This feature will be useless to the vast majority and will spur a flurry of negative comments for something that is out of Amazon’s control.
This is about TV service, not ISPs. Comcast has ~25% market share for paid TV. So, the correct way to phrase what you said is, the vast majority of people don’t have Comcast TV.
Dude, EVERYTHING you said makes no sense. I know exactly what I’m talking about, the VAST majority of Fire TV users also use Comcast which is essentially a monopoly and decides what’s best for them, which apparently, is not single sign on. Now take your meds and go back to bed and stop trying to correct me!
As of Sept 2017, Comcast had 21.48 million US TV subscribers.
AT&T’s DirectTV had 20.86 million, and another 3.83 million subscribers on their U-Verse system. That gives AT&T a total of 24.69 million pay tv customers in the USA, and makes them the largest pay tv provider in the country.
You might be confusing Comcast’s market share as an internet provider vs. a Cable TV provider. They do have by far the largest share as an ISP but those same customers may be subscribed to their TV service but a large number also use other providers like Dish, DirectTV etc. for TV.
After some research that is where the differentiation in their branding comes in. They use their Comcast branding more related to their internet services and Xfinity branding is more geared to their TV offerings.
I agree when it comes to especially Comcast/Xfinity and to about the same degree maybe less with the other major players. If the ISP has its own pay to view streaming TV service then it will be more likely to reject not only this new authorization service but any and all options which compete with their own service. They have shown this time and time again in the past and expect it to only get worse for consumers with the FCC NET NEUTRALITY ELIMINATION.
They say that they will not do these things but as has been PROVEN in the past they are fast and loose when it comes to the truth about their practices.
One can only hope that someday there is competition in all markets so that a single ISP cannot hold everyone in its market hostage to however anti competitive they want to run their business.
Competition can overcome to a certain extent what the fraudulent FCC has brought us.
Remember the mantra of days gone by, often spoken by the largest ISP’s and cable TV providers.
NO ALA CART TV packages NOT NOW NOT EVER
Hello SLING TV, HULU TV, DIRECTV NOW, YOUtubeTV and others. Maybe not 100% ALA Cart but not far from it with package choices and a lot closer than the Comcasts of this country would like.
Competition without price fixing and collusion is a wonderful thing when it works.
Any idea if this will work for Sling.tv?
canada?
I tried starting an app through Verizon. It attempted a log in without asking for my user name and password, and reported failure. How do I fix this?
This isn’t working for me either for Verizon. It’s driving me CRAZY. Have you found a fix?
I have an Amazon fire in two rooms….neither work anymore.
Where is the single sign on option
Is rbox still doing prerooted roms?
not working on freeform. i use fire tv remote to sign in but when I go to sign in instead of logging me in, it goes back to the tv provider page with me logged out.
Fails for me on directv now and Cox
***IMPORTANT INFO 1/27/18***
Updating any app that uses the “Single Sign-On” system effectively kills it, if you are not using the latest Amazon OS. Updating the app launches it into a warning screen to update OS that you cannot bypass.
If you have updates blocked (like I do) and wish to continue using these apps do not update them. Current apps affected (the I have found so far) are:
History Channel, Hallmark, Lifetime, Turner Classic Movies (I’m sure there are more)the wife is pissed!
This is just another nail in the Amazon coffin for me though, I purchased a MiBox and have a Shield on order, I’m happier with Android TV these days.
Anyone else use someone else’s cable log in info, causing you not to be able to use xfinity to log in?? Automatically pulls my cable which in turn, results “you do not have this subscription “. Any way around this?? Main issue I’ve seen so far is Bravo app.
I’m curious…..I have my amazon fire under me and all cable is under husbands email….I can’t get anything to work and can’t change to my husbands log in….
I’m having the same problem using someone else’s cable login using optimum. I put in the credentials, sign in, then the screen goes black and returns to the fire TV main menu? Anybody having this same issue and have any solutions?
ugh same here! I have my own internet subscription but use someone else’s cable subscription (both are thru optimum). I mainly watch the HGTV app. I’ve found that going into app settings, clearing the HGTV app’s cache, force stopping it, and then launching it will allow me to successfully log in using the cable subscription settings I normally use, however I get the ‘not authorized’ message again within a day or two and I have to repeat the whole thing again. It’s driving me nuts. I even uninstalled and reinstalled the app…that worked for a few days but that was all. There’s gotta be a fix to this….
Anything? Force stopping and clearing cache does not work for me!
I did uninstall and reinstall the HGTV app. I also did the single-sign on thing on another app, hoping it would communicate with all the other single-sign on apps. This has helped in that I get the Not Authorized error much less frequently, although it still happens every couple weeks :/
Elias, can you post what the Fire TV software upgrade numbers are for the version that’s supposed to include this update?
I have a stock Fire TV 2 that previously had various apps individually authenticated with DirecTV Now. The last time my Fire TV OS updated was Jan. 23.
So today, to give this a try, I opened my ABC app on my Fire TV and it showed me as having been authenticated thru DTVN, which I had done a long time ago. So I logged out in the ABC app and then relaunched it.
But when I clicked to sign in again, instead of taking me to any kind of TV Everywhere authentication prompt, it instead took me to a page asking me to authenticate the ABC app on my computer using a particular ABC webpage and authentication code.
I’m thinking, that’s not the way the single sign on TV Everywhere approach on the Fire TV is supposed to work.
Ahh… ABC isn’t a supported app in the Fire TVs TV Everywhere interface???
When I try to log in to the Bravo app (which i never had a problem with before) its now telling me that a Bravo subscription is required.! It says i need a package that includes bravo such as extreme HD or ultimate HD and I HAVE EXTREME HD! someone help!!
I need my Bravo shows!
Does this actually work for anyone? I ran the HGTV and had to sign in using the horrible email/password system fir the Fire TV Remote. So then I installed Food Network. Had to manually log into that one too. Next I installed DIY Network. Had to manually log into that one too.
Horrible horrible system.
How do you disable this feature? None of my videos are working. Currently it says “null”. I have logged in with an older at&t uverse email (without tv package) and I would to reenter the new at&t email (with tv package); however, every time I sign out and go to sign in I click the att&t verse and it automatically signs me in regardless if I sign out, clear cache, clear data, or uninstall and reinstall app. Nothing works. I even changed the password on the email and it still automatically signs me in. Please Help!
Yeah, I need a way to disable this. Do I have to uninstall every single sign on app, and then reinstall?
Did you ever figure this out? I’m having the same issue.
Eventually it signed me out and I was able to resign back in with password. After that it worked.
Is there a way to change the account and password for the single sign in??? I for some reason was automatically signed in under my account when I use a friends (he gets cable and I don’t). Now I can’t watch anything. I just keep getting an error message saying “this content is not included in your tv package”. Halp please!
I have this same issue!! How did you correct it?!
You apparently can’t. I’ve posted on Amazon’s forums and had chats and calls with them and no one knows any way to change your information other than resetting the entire device. It’s a completely flawed system.
I have same TV provider but different log in info and I cannot figure out how to change it.
How do you change your tv provider information? Every time I attempt to do it, it automatically signs me back in with the wrong information. I have tried everything other than restoring my firestick back to factory defaults. Please Help! Thanks!
Amazon says it’s not them. lololol
Log in with an entirely different account. That’s all I’ve figured out so far.