Roku owners get another live-TV streaming option with addition of PlayStation Vue

By Kris Wouk June 21, 2016

playstation vue comes to roku — Image used with permission by copyright holder

PlayStation Vue launched throughout the U.S. in March, but while it was finally not geographically restricted, it still wasn’t as widely available as its chief competition, Sling TV, due to a small number of supported devices. While Sling TV seemed to be available almost anywhere, PlayStation Vue was only available for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 game consoles, iOS, and Amazon Fire TV devices.

Now the service is available to a wider range of people, as PlayStation Vue has finally become available to Roku users. This includes stand-alone Roku devices like the Roku 4 and Roku Streaming Stick, as well as various Roku TV models. If you’re already a PlayStation Vue customer, you simply need to install the app and authorize your account to get started.

If you’ve used PlayStation Vue on another device, the interface won’t seem familiar when using the Roku version of the app. While the interface in other versions offers a channel “guide,” similar to cable and satellite set-top box interfaces, there is nothing similar here. Users can browse live programming, but the timeline showing what was on previously and what’s coming up next is nowhere to be found. This fits better with the Roku aesthetic, but may take some getting used to if you already use Vue on another device.

PlayStation Vue subscriptions start at either $30 per month, or $40 per month for those who live in the select few cities offering live local broadcast stations (currently New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, San Francisco, and Miami). This gets you the Access plan, which offers more than 55 channels; more channels are available with the Core (more than 70 channels) or Elite (more than 100 channels) plans, which start at $35 or $45 per month, respectively, or $45 and $55 for those living the aforementioned cities. Stand-alone channels including Showtime and Fox Soccer Plus are also available as add-ons.

Roku owners aren’t the only people finally getting access to PlayStation Vue. In the post on the PlayStation Blog announcing Roku availability, Sony said that the service will also become available to Android users beginning next week.

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Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…

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