Sony is considering selling off Playstation Vue, the company's proprietary streaming service, despite the significant rise of digital streaming. Streaming services, such as industry giants Netflix, Hulu, and the upcoming Disney+ have sought to overtake traditional cable in recent years.
The service does not require a PS4, as it is supported on Apple TV and Roku among other devices, and within a web browser. Unlike much of the competition, Sony packages their services similar to the old-school cable model, with preset networks available at different tiers. More channels, including movie networks like Showtime and HBO, are available at higher end tiers. Sony may have some trouble selling Playstation Vue due to the sheer number of networks and sports channels who may not be interested in inclusion of the sale, thus potentially stripping content from the service after it has changed ownership.
A report from The Information states that Sony has fallen significantly behind other streaming service providers in subscriptions and service features. The sale would include their streaming technology and full subscriber list - comprised of roughly half a million households. One company Sony approached to purchase the service is the sports-oriented streaming platform, FuboTV, though sources say FuboTV turned them down. Sony has reportedly contacted Bank of America Merrill Lynch to help assist with the sale. Sources say Sony hopes to raise their stock price by ridding itself of the unprofitable service. One issue is the high price to secure content on their platform, as well as their lack of original content. Another is how little leverage Sony has in the film and TV business arenas to pick and choose partnerships. At the base subscription level ($44.99 monthly), Playstation Vue includes access to over 45 channels, including major networks like AMC, FX, and ESPN.
Unfortunately, Sony has hiked their base prices repeatedly since the service launched in 2015 just to keep up, making Playstation Vue feel even more like traditional cable TV. The service mimics some of cable's bad habits, and the majority of customers prefer a la carte streaming media these days. Customers familiar with cable know that these network packages often include channels of no interest to them at a significant premium.
Even similar streamlined cable-adjacent services from other major companies like YouTube and DirecTV struggle to compete in today's market. Customers would largely rather pay roughly $10 a month to a few services each, with accessible (and often binge-worthy) content - even if it means managing more services overall. Perhaps the sale of Playstation Vue service will benefit Sony in the long run, if current projections for the PS5 are to be believed.
Source: The Information