Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced it is officially shutting down PlayStation Vue early next year.
“Today we are announcing that we will shut down the PlayStation Vue service on January 30, 2020,” SIE deputy president, John Kodera, wrote on the official PlayStation blog .
“Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business.”
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“We are very proud of what PlayStation Vue was able to accomplish”, Kodera continued. “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.”
Smart money
PlayStation Vue is a subscription-based streaming video service that pairs live local channels like NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX with dozens of notable cable channels from all across the spectrum. The service is only available in the United States, and as the name suggests, you can indeed watch it on your PlayStation 4.
It's no surprise Sony is leaving behind PlayStation Vue as it progresses into the next-generation PS5 – the service wasn't exactly a huge success.
According to a recent report by The Information (via Gamasutra), Sony's digital TV service has been haemorrhaging money so much that the company is looking to sell off its technology and subscriber list so it could step away from live TV altogether. And it seems that's exactly what's happening.
Sony was always up against tough competition with PlayStation Vue, with services such as DirectTV and YouTube boasting millions of subscribers – while Vue reportedly only has around 500,000 subscribers.
PlayStation Vue will cease working on January 30, 2020. However, Sony hasn't explained what will happen to already-paid subscriptions which run beyond that time.
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