Sony's 'PlayStation Vue' Live Streaming TV Service Shutting Down January 30, 2020

As live TV streaming services continue to increase prices and make viewers look toward lower-cost services, or return to cable altogether, Sony today announced that it's bowing out of the race completely. PlayStation Vue's servers will shut down for good on January 30, 2020, nearly 5 years after soft launching in March of 2015.

According to Sony's Deputy President of Sony Interactive Entertainment, John Kodera, the company has decided to "remain focused" on its core gaming business and step away from OTT streaming services. "Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected," said Kodera.

We are very proud of what PlayStation Vue was able to accomplish. We had ambitious goals for how our service could change how people watch TV, showcasing PlayStation’s ability to innovate in a brand-new category within the Pay TV industry. We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue’s launch in 2015.

PS4 owners will still be able to rent and purchase films and TV on the PlayStation Store, and the console will still support media apps like Netflix and Amazon Prime. The only thing going away is PlayStation Vue, which includes all of its connected apps, including those on iOS and tvOS.

In other live TV streaming news, AT&T this month announced that it would be increasing the price of its AT&T TV NOW grandfathered plans by $10 per month. Additionally, AT&T will increase the price of the new PLUS and MAX plan tiers by $15 per month, all starting on November 19, 2019 (via Cord Cutters News).

For the new tiers, this means that AT&T TV NOW will start at $65 per month for PLUS and increase to $85 per month for MAX. This is the second major price hike for the service in 2019, after another $10 per month increase back in March, when it was still called DirecTV Now.

Tags: Sony, PlayStation Vue

Top Rated Comments

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D.T.

12 weeks ago

Mark my words - 10 years from now, having all of your content in one place again (i.e. cable) without subscribing to 8 services to get all of the content you want.. will make cable look like a good deal again.

OK, got it scheduled ...

Rating: 11 Votes

cylack

12 weeks ago

Should be corrected to read: "In other live TV streaming news, ATT this month announced it would be further screwing customers over"

Rating: 10 Votes

Exile714

12 weeks ago

Networks...

They simply ask too much for their content. The quality isn’t there for 90% of what they create, but they’ve had a dominant market position for so long they don’t appreciate having to compete.

Well, the era of broadcast TV has ended. Instead of adapting, they think they can charge as much as other streaming services for their single channel’s worth of content. It’s going to be a hard wake up call when they realize that won’t work.

PS Vue, like all the other “cable, but streaming” platforms, struggled because networks couldn’t wrap their heads around the price/benefit ratio consumers give their content. They think they can go it alone, that they just need to put their stuff out there and people will eventually sign up, but what happens when they find out they were wrong? Where do they turn to sell their content? I’d be scared of this new world if I were them...

Rating: 8 Votes

locovaca

12 weeks ago

Having used both Sling and PS Vue, PS Vue was the best by far. Apple TV app supported 4 simultaneous streams. 60 FPS on every channel. And they had web streaming with 60 FPS long before anyone else did. 60fps makes a huge difference in quality for sports. I don’t know what I’ll do but we’ll have to figure out who has the regional sports channels I need.

Rating: 7 Votes

M.PaulCezanne

12 weeks ago

Somehow, some way, Comcast is responsible for all of this.

Rating: 6 Votes

nutmac

12 weeks ago

Networks are just digging their own graves.

To millennials, watching TV means Amazon Prime Video, HBO Now, Hulu, Netflix, YouTube and the likes.

Sports was probably the only thing that kept people from leaving entirely.

Rating: 5 Votes

newtestleper

12 weeks ago

We know: you didn't even know PlayStation Vue was a thing.

Rating: 4 Votes

Surfer13134

12 weeks ago

This sucks, Ive been with Vue for a little over a year and after trying the other streaming services I found Vue had the most channels at the best price not to mention the UI is very easy to navigate and find the shows you want.

Rating: 3 Votes

lostczech

12 weeks ago

Crap. This is terrible news. I preferred their DVR to pretty much everyone else out there (You can skip commercials)

Anyone out here in MR-land have any recommendations for a lost Vue soul?

Rating: 3 Votes

bigjnyc

12 weeks ago

Noooooooo!!!!!! Oh my god this is devastating. We love PS Vue from the price to the channel selection, to the interface and the fact that you can have 5 devices at once. It’s by far the best of the streaming services for live tv imo

edit - also the ability to watch 2-4 channels at once in split screen.

Rating: 3 Votes

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