{"id":320917,"date":"2025-11-07T14:25:28","date_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/?p=138820"},"modified":"2025-11-07T14:25:28","modified_gmt":"2025-11-07T19:25:28","slug":"playstation-vue-shutting-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/playstation-vue-shutting-down\/","title":{"rendered":"PlayStation Vue is the First Casualty in the TV Streaming War"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On October 29, 2019, Sony announced<\/a> it\u2019ll be shutting down its PlayStation Vue streaming service at the end of January 2020. Sony cited a \u201chighly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals,\u201d and had already raised prices over time (including a $5 monthly increase <\/a>that summer). Since then, streaming prices and packaging have shifted markedly toward higher ad\u2011free prices and lower with\u2011ads entry points: Max raised ad\u2011free to $16.99\/month in Jan 2024 (Variety<\/a>), Peacock moved to $7.99 (Premium, with ads) and $13.99 (Premium Plus) (Variety<\/a>), and Paramount+ set Essential at $7.99 and Paramount+ with Showtime at $12.99 (Variety<\/a>). Disney maintained Disney+ with ads at $7.99, lifted Hulu (No Ads) to $18.99, and introduced a Disney+\u2013Hulu\u2013Max bundle in 2024 (The Walt Disney Company<\/a>). Amazon made ads the default on Prime Video in the U.S. with a $2.99\/month ad\u2011free upsell starting Jan 29, 2024 (The Verge<\/a>). Netflix reports strong momentum for its ads business with 40M+ monthly active users on the ads plan and a significant share of sign\u2011ups choosing ads in supported markets (Netflix Investor Relations<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Motley Fool<\/a> reported at the time that PlayStation Vue was far behind competitors at roughly 800,000 subscribers. Today\u2019s competitive context is much larger at the global SVOD level: Netflix has ~311 million paid memberships (Q3 2025; Netflix IR<\/a>), Disney+ totals ~172\u2013173 million globally including Hotstar with Hulu at ~51\u201352 million and ESPN+ ~26\u201327 million (all per Disney fiscal Q4 2025; Disney IR<\/a>), Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s Max\/Discovery+ sits near ~99 million global DTC subscribers (Q3 2025; WBD IR<\/a>), Paramount+ is ~72 million (Q3 2025; Paramount Global IR<\/a>), and Peacock has ~45 million paid subscribers (Q3 2025; Comcast Investors<\/a>). Apple does not disclose Apple TV+ subscribers; reputable industry analysis places paying subscribers in the low\u201140 millions as of mid\u20112025 (estimate; Ampere Analysis<\/a>). Among live\u2011TV streamers (vMVPDs), industry trackers estimate YouTube TV in the high\u2011single\u2011million range and Hulu + Live TV in the mid\u2011single\u2011millions, with Sling TV and Fubo in a smaller second tier by subs (Leichtman Research Group<\/a>; see also Disney\u2019s disclosures on Hulu + Live TV scale: Disney IR<\/a>). For historical contrast, U.S. subscriber counts in early 2019 were far smaller\u2014Netflix at an estimated 60 million<\/a> and Hulu at 26 million\u2014underscoring how the market has scaled and diversified since Vue\u2019s era.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consumers are experiencing subscription fatigue from higher prices, fragmentation, and the shift to ads\u2014prompting more churn\u2011cycling and tougher choices. As a result, both piracy and password sharing<\/a> remain pressure points: network\u2011level data show file\u2011sharing\/BitTorrent traffic has rebounded as services fragment and prices rise (Sandvine 2024<\/a>), and EU monitoring recorded a return to growth in online piracy (+3.3% YoY in 2022, with further upticks into 2023 in several countries; EUIPO<\/a>). Sharing is still common, especially among younger users (Deloitte<\/a>; Ofcom<\/a>), but enforcement is changing outcomes: when Netflix implemented paid\u2011sharing policies, it generated its four largest days of U.S. user acquisition on record at launch and sustained elevated conversions of borrowers to paid accounts thereafter (Antenna<\/a>). It\u2019s unlikely PlayStation Vue will be the last service to exit or pivot. FuboTV remains a smaller, sports\u2011centric vMVPD with strong RSN coverage in many markets and 4K sports features, but it faces high rights costs and notable gaps such as the absence of Turner networks (TNT\/TBS\/truTV) that carry portions of the NBA, NHL, MLB postseason and March Madness (The Streamable<\/a>). Competitive dynamics could shift again with the Disney\u2011Fox\u2011Warner Bros. Discovery sports JV branded \u201cVenu Sports,\u201d announced in 2024 (Business Wire<\/a>), which Fubo has challenged via an antitrust lawsuit (Fubo IR<\/a>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

PlayStation Vue<\/a> launched in 2015 and, before its discontinuation, was Reviews.com\u2019s \u201cBest for Live Sports\u201d in our review of TV streaming services<\/a>. We especially favored Vue for its broad sports network mix. We\u2019ll be updating our relevant reviews; in the meantime, the strongest all\u2011around live\u2011sports bundle for most households is YouTube TV (broad national coverage, unlimited DVR, and optional NFL Sunday Ticket; YouTube TV<\/a>). For the lowest cost to access key national sports channels, we continue to recommend Sling TV<\/a> (best paired with an antenna and select apps; Sling Sports<\/a>). If in\u2011market RSNs for your local NBA\/NHL\/MLB teams are essential, consider Fubo (note the Regional Sports Fee; Fubo Support<\/a>) or DirecTV Stream (Choice or higher; DIRECTV STREAM<\/a>). Pricing, channel lineups, RSN availability, and fees change frequently\u2014always verify your ZIP\u2011code lineup and final monthly total before switching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On October 29, 2019, Sony announced it\u2019ll be shutting down its PlayStation Vue streaming service at the end of January 2020. Sony cited a \u201chighly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals,\u201d and had already raised prices over time (including a $5 monthly increase that summer). Since then, streaming prices and packaging have shifted markedly toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":138877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1315],"tags":[],"post_author":[],"yoast_head":"\nPlayStation Vue is the First Casualty in the TV Streaming War - Reviews.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.reviews.com\/entertainment\/streaming\/playstation-vue-shutting-down\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"PlayStation Vue is the First Casualty in the TV Streaming War - Reviews.com\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On October 29, 2019, Sony announced it\u2019ll be shutting down its PlayStation Vue streaming service at the end of January 2020. 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