Later this month, Sony will be launching PlayStation Vue in three major US markets. New York, Chicago and Philadelphia will receive access in the next two weeks, and the service will supposedly roll out to the rest of the US later in 2015. We still don’t know pricing and firm launch details, but if this gains enough traction, this could potentially turn Sony into a major player in the burgeoning business of IPTV.
Over at the Wall Street Journal, Sony’s Andrew House laid out some of the plans for theinitial launch of PlayStation Vue. Unfortunately, the details remain fuzzy. For example, I live in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, but not in Philadelphia itself. Will I be eligible for early access to Vue? I have no idea. How much will subscribers have to pay? No clue. Sony is staying mum on much of the nitty gritty, so it’s hard to gauge the value of this service just yet.
Originally announced back in November of last year, PlayStation Vue is aimed directly at cord-cutters. With CBS, Discovery, FOX, NBC, Scripps, and Viacom on board as content partners, this actually has the potential to succeed. However, it needs to be the right content at the right price. If we’re talking $10 to $20 per month for all of Vue’s live and on-demand content, that’s definitely going to entice the cable-free among us. But if it ends up as a tiered service with the best content locked away behind $40 and $50 packages, it’ll be no better than traditional cable services. Sony really needs to get this right, or Vue will fade to the background like all of Sony’s past streaming efforts.
Initially, the PlayStation Vue service will be available on PS3 and PS4 consoles exclusively, but Sony doesn’t plan on keeping it exclusive for very long. An iPad app is in the works, and support for other devices has already been promised. It’s highly unlikely that it will ever come to the Xbox One, but Roku and Apple TV may well be in the realm of possibilities. After all, Sony isn’t in much of a position to turn away more revenue.
The PS4’s success is definitely a bright spot for Sony, but its flagging TV business and itslackluster digital storefronts have left the Tokyo-based company in a vulnerable position. Vue could be the next big thing or a giant flop. But it’s still way too early to tell.
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