Sony today announced that its live TV streaming service, PlayStation Vue, will receive a $5/month price hike across every one of its multi-channel plans. This means that the cheapest PS Vue plan will now be $49.99/month for the "Access" tier.
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Additionally, the "Core" tier will be priced at $54.99/month, the "Elite" tier will be $64.99/month, and the "Ultra" tier will be $84.99/month. The price hike is effective today for new customers, while existing customers will retain their existing prices for at least 30 days, and then will see new prices during their first billing cycle on or after July 31, 2019.
Sony said that because of the rising cost of content each year, it decided to increase prices to ensure that it provides "the best live TV viewing experience at the most compelling value." The company also noted that it will continue to develop new features and integrations for the service in the future, and pointed out that PS Vue already offers multi-view on Apple TV, a conflict-free DVR, and more.
With costs rising each year for content, we constantly evaluate each deal to ensure we continue to deliver the content you want while considering the overall value of each package. After reviewing this, we have made the decision to raise the price of all of our multi-channel plans by $5. This change starts today for new customers. Our existing customers will keep their current price for at least 30 days and will see the new price beginning on their first billing cycle on or after July 31.
PS Vue is the latest live TV streaming service to see a price hike this year; it was preceded by YouTube TV in April, FuboTV in March, and DirecTV Now also in March. All three of these services increased their rates by $10/month.
Below we've listed the current entry-level prices across the major live TV streaming services:
- SlingTV - $25/month for "Orange and Blue" with limited-time discount
- Hulu With Live TV - $44.99/month
- PS Vue - $49.99/month for "Access" tier
- YouTube TV - $49.99/month
- DirecTV Now - $50/month for "Plus" and "Live a Little"
- FuboTV - $54.99/month for "Standard"
With its $5/month hike today, PS Vue now matches entry level plans offered by DirecTV Now and YouTube TV. This allows Hulu With Live TV to take the mantle as the cheapest entry-level live TV streaming service (for now).
Top Rated Comments
Didn't they already raise the price by $5 a year or two ago? I think they're really going to start pricing a bunch of people out again. I mean, the cheapest Xfinity option in many markets is $70/mo TV only. So not far off.
$5 a year ago and $10 a year before that. So it's gone from $30 to $50/month in 2 years.From what I've heard, typically the two biggest costs to these plans are locals and sports. If they made a no locals and/or no sports package (think Philo @ $20/mo) I think they'd pick up a non-trivial number of subs that way. But maybe the content providers have these services on thin enough margins already, who knows. I just know I'm not excited to go back toward higher prices again. I went for Philo when it was still $16/mo and picked up an antenna for OTA stuff. It's cheaper to do that and take a six pack of beer over to a friend's house when there's a football game on ESPN I want to watch.
The ability to easily unsubscribe and resubscribe will always make these options way better than standard cable in my eyes. Trying to deal with cancelling ATT or Comcast is a headache. Plus you can't use it in any room or while you're away from home.
THIS!