New streaming services have been springing up consistently for years now, but in January, one is actually being shut down. On Tuesday, Sony announced that its live TV service, PlayStation Vue, will no longer be accessible starting on January 30th, 2020. If this is how you watch live TV, you’ll need to find a new service.
John Kodera, Deputy President of Sony Interactive Entertainment, blames “the highly competitive Pay TV industry” for the death of PlayStation Vue, as he claims it didn’t adapt as quickly as the company hoped it would. As a result, Sony has decided to focus on its gaming business instead, which has been a major driver over the last several years, and will likely continue to be one with the launch of the PlayStation 5 next holiday season.
“PlayStation fans can continue to access movie and TV content through the PlayStation Store on PS4 and via our partnerships with top entertainment apps,” Kodera writes. “With 100 million PlayStation 4s in the market today, our community continues to grow and thrive. We will continue to deliver the best entertainment experiences across the network, along with other key gaming services, including PlayStation Now and PlayStation Plus.”
This announcement comes just a week after The Information reported that Sony was looking to sell Vue. The service was said to have peaked at around 500,000 subscribers, which is a fraction of what some of its biggest competitors boast, including YouTube TV and Sling. This had to have been especially disappointing due to the fact that, having launched in 2015, it was one of the first live TV services to hit the market.
