Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Gaming
  3. News

PlayStation Vue: Sony’s long-awaited TV service is official, will carry 75 channels

Will Fulton
By

Sony’s new cloud-based TV streaming service, PlayStation Vue, has set its sights on cable and satellite TV. The media and hardware giant announced the long-anticipated service today, which kicks off an invitational beta in November 2014, leading up to a commercial release in early 2015.

Sitting somewhere between TiVo and Hulu, PlayStation Vue provides one seamless interface for both live television programming and recorded, streaming content. Popular programming from the last three days will remain available to view at any time without needing to set anything up. Tagged favorite shows will be automatically recorded without storage restrictions or scheduling conflicts for 28 days after airing.

Recommended Videos

During the beta, the service will offer around 75 channels per market, including both national and local broadcasters. This includes local affiliates of major networks such as CBS, Fox, and NBC, and also national, cable-based networks such as FX, Comedy Central, and Discovery Channel. The regional specificity will also allow users to watch local sports through services like Fox Sports and Prime Ticket.

Related
Sony PlayStation Vue
Image used with permission by copyright holder

PlayStation Vue starts rolling out to select American cities this month, via invitations sent to PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 owners. It’s coming to iPad and devices from both Sony and other manufacturers soon after that, with commercial availability targeted for the first quarter of 2015.

A large part of Sony’s strategy to take down the cable industry behemoth is transparent pricing and only month-to-month commitments, rather than annual subscriptions that can be difficult and inflexible. The exact pricing details are not yet available, but Sony promises transparent, competitive rates without any additional fees or charges. Rumors earlier in 2014 pointed towards higher monthly rates than initially anticipated — on the order of $80 per month, which puts it in the same price category as most cable services — but Sony has not confirmed any figures, and negotiations are presumably ongoing.

Internet-based services like Netflix, Amazon, and Yahoo have all taken a stand against traditional broadcasting models recently by investing in original programming. The battle for audiences is playing out legally through the FCC and the issue of net neutrality, as traditional cable providers largely still hold monopolies over the Internet services upon which these upstart competitors rely. Sony is uniquely positioned in this battle as a conglomerate that already has substantial stakes in media hardware, digital platforms, and content production, whereas the other companies are generally coming from one of these areas and moving into the others.

Related video: Sony to introduce web-based TV service

The industries of mass content distribution have been sluggish to adapt to the rapidly evolving mediascape of the 21st century. Internet natives and upstarts have pecked away at the establishment over the last few years, but a media giant like Sony throwing its hat into the ring marks a substantial shift in that struggle. The inertia of decades of capital invested in broadcast media can only resist for so long the Internet’s growing gravitational pull to unite all media into one, fluid ecology.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Will Fulton
Will Fulton
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Will Fulton is a New York-based writer and theater-maker. In 2011 he co-founded mythic theater company AntiMatter Collective…
Sony’s cloud handheld, the PlayStation Portal, will only stream certain games
Astro's Playroom booting up on the PlayStation Portal.

Sony has unveiled the price for its upcoming cloud gaming handheld, as well as an official name for the device: PlayStation Portal. However, one significant caveat to its functionality might sour people's interest in the handheld: It only supports PS4 and PS5 native games that the owner purchased.
PlayStation VR2 games can't be streamed to PlayStation Portal, which does make sense. More bafflingly, though, is the fact that the PlayStation Blog post states that "games that are streamed through PlayStation Plus Premium’s cloud streaming are not supported." That means you shouldn't pick up PlayStation Portal expecting to stream some PS3 and PS4 games available through PlayStation Plus Premium to the device. That's certainly an odd omission when it's currently PlayStation's most notable cloud gaming effort.
Although Microsoft is more closely associated with cloud gaming, Sony beat it to releasing a dedicated cloud gaming device. PlayStation Portal was first teased as Project Q during May's PlayStation showcase, but now, a PlayStation Blog post more clearly explains what we can actually expect from the handheld. Most importantly, we learned that PlayStation Portal will cost $200, which puts it underneath the cost of a Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series S, and other cloud gaming devices like the Logitech G Cloud Handheld.
As for what you're getting for that price tag, it's essentially a decent screen attached to two halves of a DualSense controller. The controllers on each side share all the functionality of the DualSense, including things like haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. In-between is an 8-inch LCD screen that streams games over Wi-Fi at up to a 1080p resolution and 60 frames per second. All in all, that's fairly solid for a cloud gaming handheld that is this cheap.
Sony confirmed that the PlayStation Portal will have a 3.5mm audio jack, but also used the same blog post to unveil two new wireless audio options. There's the Pulse Elite wireless headset that features a retractable boom mic and a charging hanger and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds that offer similar audio quality in earbud form.
None of these products are available for preorder or have a specific release date just yet, but they are all expected to launch before the end of the year.

Read more
Does PlayStation 5 have a web browser?
Playstation 5 with a controller.

We live in an era where basically every device in our homes can connect to the internet in some way, and most of them can provide in-depth searching through apps and web browsers. The previous generation of consoles was included in this modern experience, and even the Xbox Series X features full-fledged web browsing – but for those who have purchased a PlayStation 5, the situation is a little bit more complicated.
Does the PS5 have a web browser?
The PS5 does not have a traditional web browser in the way that the PS4 did, meaning users can't quickly pull up websites and surf the net with ease. This is no doubt a frustrating omission for those used to accessing the web from their previous consoles, and it's honestly a bit strange that Sony chose to leave out such a useful feature. However, while you may not be able to pull up a browser from your main menu, there is technically a workaround to gain access to an extremely limited web browser by finagling with the Twitter linking function in your settings, but it's an awful lot of trouble to go through for something that doesn't really function in a way that users can actually benefit from.

Unfortunately, Sony doesn't seem to want to add an official web browser app to the PS5, as the company has expressed on various occasions that it doesn't feel that such functionality is important for gaming consoles. So, if you're in the PlayStation ecosystem, it appears that your web browsing will have to continue exclusively on your old PS4. It's a bummer, but hey, maybe you could try getting one of those refrigerators with web functionality.

Read more
PlayStation 5 Slim: All rumors and speculation
A PS5 stands on a table.

It's at around this point in a console's life cycle that companies like to release a new, slim model to reinvigorate sales, cut costs, and experiment with a new design. Sony has been trimming down its home consoles since the PS2, with each home console getting a slimmer, sometimes cheaper replacement a few years after launch. We're closing in on the PlayStation 5's third birthday and rumors abound about both a PS5 Pro and a PS5 Slim model, and yet Sony's remained tight-lipped about any iterations on the base unit. Still, some of these rumors and potential leaks may hold some weight and are fun to follow regardless to see how accurate they end up being.
Will there be a PS5 Slim? Here's what we know
Before getting into the rumors and leaks, know that until Sony itself confirms the existence of a PS5 Slim, everything that follows is speculative and should be taken as such.

The first rumors of a new PS5 model centered around a diskless version that could be paired with a detachable disk drive you could buy separately in another step away from physical media. This was speculated to be coming out sometime in fall 2023, but has been rolled into the idea of the PS5 Slim. This potentially imminent release date also lines up with statements Microsoft made about a new PS5 Slim releasing this year for $400 during the Federal Trace Commission (FTC) hearing.

Read more