PlayStation Vue
PlayStation Vue (PS Vue) was an American streaming television service that was owned by the Sony Interactive Entertainment subdivision of the Sony Corporation of America division of Sony. Launched with a limited major-market rollout on March 18, 2015, the service – which was structured in the style of a multichannel video programming distributor – combined live TV (incorporating a lineup of various cable-originated television channels), on-demand video, and cloud-based DVR to stream television programs, movies, and sporting events directly to a PlayStation console or other supported device – including smart TVs, digital media players and apps – without a subscription to a cable or satellite television provider. Targeting cord cutters, PlayStation Vue was designed to complement subscription video-on-demand services.[1] As of August 26, 2018, the service had approximately 745,000 subscribers.[2] On October 29, 2019, Sony announced PlayStation Vue would be ending service on January 30, 2020, because "the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected".[3]
Company type
March 18, 2015
January 30, 2020
Closed
United States
Features and availability[edit]
PlayStation Vue was not necessarily designed as a substitute for a "traditional" pay television provider, but as a complement to subscription-based online services (such as Hulu, Vudu, and Netflix) and broadcast television. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, PlayStation Vue senior director of business management and content Amit Nag said that the service would be "going after the PlayStation user who is today not watching TV and driving a large ratings decline[,] and is at high risk" for abandoning the ecosystem of traditional subscription television in favor of services such as Hulu, Vudu and Netflix.[13]
Initial activation of PlayStation Vue (including setting the "home" location) and required profile creation could only be performed with a "supported, TV-connected device" (PlayStation 3 or 4, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Android TV, PC or Mac) with Internet access. Activation and required profile creation with mobile or Chromecast was not supported.[44] Activation through the PlayStation website could not work if third-party cookies had been blocked in the web browser. Packages were billed on a monthly basis and could be canceled at any time. No contract was required to subscribe, and a free one-week trial was offered to any user who would normally be able to access the service who have not previously redeemed a trial. The monthly rate was charged to the viewer's credit card if the service was not canceled before the end of the trial period.[45]
For contractual reasons, the service was accessible only within the Continental United States (excluding its territories). In addition, some sports telecasts – particularly NFL and NCAA college football games – were subject to blackout based on market restrictions imposed by sports leagues and collegiate athletic conferences (this included events carried on major broadcast networks that were not available on the service in markets where an affiliate had granted clearance, although some game telecasts that were not available live on PlayStation Vue were accessible via authentication to a TV Everywhere app using a PlayStation Network ID). PlayStation Vue users were restricted from accessing the service through their own credentials on PlayStation consoles and other TV-connected devices outside the location where their subscription was activated, as defined by the IP address used upon their initial sign-in to the PS Vue service; attempts to stream PlayStation Vue content on consoles outside the designated "home" location may subject a subscriber to being blocked from accessing the service through their account. Such out-of-home access restrictions do not apply to supported iOS, Android and Google Chromecast devices, and mobile web browsers.[44]
PlayStation Vue featured video on demand ("VOD") content, including catch-up programming from the channels carried on the service and content provided by over-the-top services operated by individual networks; an alternative VOD channel featuring content from each of the major broadcast networks was available as a substitute for a local station in certain markets. Vue also offered Cloud DVR functionality, which allowed users to automatically save and store recorded content for 28 days after their recording to the "My Shows" app and sort them to a personalized list; both VOD and DVR content were subject to availability by channel, program and location, particularly content from many CBS-affiliated stations that could not be stored to the "My DVR" or "My Shows" apps due to contractual streaming restrictions.[44] Some PlayStation Vue live content and Cloud DVR recordings of content saved in the "My Shows" app were restricted from being accessed on mobile devices (including Chromecast), even if the user uses their home network.[44]
On March 6, 2017, the service introduced the "Multi-View" picture-in-picture feature, which allowed users to watch up to three channels simultaneously on a single screen; the feature was initially available only to PlayStation 4 users, though it was expected to be rolled out to additional platforms in the near future. Concurrent with that announcement, Sony also revealed that it would introduce a score alert feature, which provided recurring updates on sports events currently being held and airing on channels carried by PS Vue; the feature would include an option for the alerts to be turned off while the user still watching a game in progress.[46][47]
Content[edit]
Around the time of its March 2015 soft launch, Sony announced that it had reached agreements with many major content providers to supply channels for PlayStation Vue's lineup, including The Walt Disney Company, Discovery Networks, Fox Corporation, NBCUniversal, AMC Networks, WarnerMedia, ViacomCBS, and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.[48]
As of October 2016, the channels of A&E Networks (including A&E, Lifetime, LMN and History Channel among others), The CW, member stations of PBS and its associated networks, Univision (along with its Univision Communications-owned sister broadcast and cable channels, outside Fusion), and some independent stations had yet to reach agreements with Sony to make their programming available on PlayStation Vue. However, Univision content could be accessed by PS Vue users through the network's in-house over-the-top service, Univision Now. The CW programming on the network's Chicago affiliate, WPWR-TV (which assumed the affiliation from WGN-TV on September 1, 2016), was blacked out on WPWR; all other programming carried on WPWR to which Vue held streaming rights – including those supplied through its MyNetworkTV affiliation – was carried unobstructed.[49]
Upon adding the owned-and-operated stations of ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox in May 2016, Sony representatives stated that the company intended to reach carriage deals with the independently owned station groups to provide their live signals for PS Vue, stating that it would "continue to work on adding more local stations nationwide."[29] In July and September 2016, PlayStation Vue added a selection of CBS-affiliated stations to its lineup in several mainly large and mid-sized markets, through piecemeal agreements with groups such as the Meredith Corporation (including KCTV in Kansas City, KMOV-TV in St. Louis, KPHO in Phoenix, WFSB in Hartford–New Haven, and WGCL-TV in Atlanta), Sinclair Broadcast Group (including KEYE-TV in Austin, WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, WWMT in Kalamazoo–Grand Rapids, Michigan, WHP in Harrisburg–Lancaster, Pennsylvania, KUTV in Salt Lake City, and WPEC in West Palm Beach), Raycom Media (covering WOIO in Cleveland and WBTV in Charlotte), and Midwest Television (covering KFMB-TV in San Diego). Approximately 50 additional CBS stations including KCCI in Des Moines and WLKY in Louisville were added to PS Vue in January and February 2017 through existing group deals as well as new agreements with companies such as Hearst Television, Heritage Broadcasting Group, Griffin Communications, News-Press & Gazette Company and Gray Television.[50][51][52][53] Outside the aforementioned CBS affiliates, Miami Fox affiliate WSVN (owned by Sunbeam Television), and NBC affiliates KPRC-TV in Houston and WDIV-TV in Detroit (both owned by Graham Media Group), all of the other broadcast television stations that offered on Vue were owned-and-operated stations of their respective parent network.[29]