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As the troubled service continues to lose money, Sony is reportedly looking to sell off its live TV streaming platform, PlayStation Vue.
PlayStation platform holder Sony targeted the cable TV market with its video-on-demand service back in 2014. PlayStation Vue was not only a PlayStation-only product but also had an iPad version in development alongside the PS4 and PS3 releases at launch.
“PlayStation Vue brings the best of live TV and a robust catalogue of the latest content, always keeping you connected to what’s popular, new and trending,” then SCE president Andrew House said at the time. “Today’s announcement builds on the historic success of PlayStation 4 and demonstrates what our company is capable of when we embrace disruption and stay true to gamers.”
Vue passed the 100k subscriber mark a little over a year after its debut, but it remains even now unavailable in the UK, and availability of state-specific live channels varies in each region. In 2017, ESL announced it would launch its esports TV channel on PlayStation Vue as part of the PlayStation Vue Elite plan, giving viewers in the States access to the 24/7 channel for the first time.
“EsportsTV is the perfect complement to the PlayStation Vue offering and represents just another step for esports as a form of mainstream entertainment,” Steven Roberts, Executive Chairman, ESL, said at the time. “ESL is in a unique position to significantly expand the reach and impact of premium esports content and we are thrilled to bring esports TV to the U.S. market.”
Though Vue has raised its customer base to around 500,000 subscribers, The Information now reports PlayStation Vue is up for sale, having failed to turn a profit since launching in March 2015 (thanks, GI.biz). Though Sony cut the price of the service several times to entice new subscribers early on, it’s since been raised three times in four years, with its lowest-priced monthly package increasing 25 per cent over that time.
