Sony is shutting down PlayStation Vue

Sony is shutting down its live TV streaming service PlayStation Vue on January 30th, 2020, the company announced today. The news comes just a week after speculations that Sony wanted to sell the service to third party. The business was said to be valued in the tens of millions at the time. However, Sony may have had difficulty finding a buyer because its service didn't run on proprietary technology— it used the Disney-owned streaming platform BAMTech.

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."

The company directed PlayStation owners to its PlayStation Store on PS4 to continue to access movie and TV content going forward.

"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. We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue's launch in 2015," the announcement read.

PlayStation Vue was among a wave of services that launched to provide a bundle of live-streamed TV channels without the hassle of cable. Dish, AT&T, Hulu and YouTube also have all developed products. And niche offerings like FuboTV and Philo focused on providing a smaller, more focused set of channels.

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