Sony to shut down PlayStation Vue streaming service in January
Sony's live TV service is going away.
PlayStation Vue is shutting down early next year.
Sony is leaving the live TV streaming market. The company announced on Tuesday that it will be shuttering its PlayStation Vue service on Jan. 30, 2020.
In a blog post, John Kodera, deputy president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, blamed the increasingly competitive live TV market.
"Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected," Kodera writes. "Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business."
Sony plans to launch the PlayStation 5, its next-generation game console, next year.
Praised for its slick interface, Vue was one of the first true cable TV alternatives. In the years since, however, the field has gotten increasingly more complicated with new streaming competition from the likes of YouTube TV, Hulu with Live TV , Fubo TV, Sling TV and AT&T (in the form of AT&T TV Now, AT&T Watch TV and AT&T TV).
November will also see the release of new streaming services such as Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus that will further compete for consumers' time and wallets.
"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," Kodera writes. "We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue's launch in 2015."
