"I can watch live football on all my devices--even my phone--without a PlayStation console," ESPN reporter Lisa Salters declared in a recent TV ad. Another 91 local channels arrived in October, bringing Sony's broadcast coverage up to 618 stations nationwide. Sony, then, comes out looking a bit wiser, having avoided wasting money on risky subscribers. Can you please clarify how you purchased the videos? But in recent months, even Sony's rivals have cooled on the device deal strategy. PlayStation Vue also delivered a much higher average bit rate than most other services at 4.59 Mbps, versus a median of 3.07 Mbps. Expand your collection of favorite movies with PlayStation™Store and enjoy on the go with PlayStation™Video. In August, PlayStation Vue added 200 local broadcast stations around the country, and Sony reconciled with Sinclair in September, re-adding the mega-broadcaster's channels to the lineup. Subscribers should now be more confident in the service than ever, even if the business itself remains on unsteady footing. © 2020 Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC, Modern Slavery Transparency Act Statement.
(The company later backpedaled somewhat, saying it had no plans to shut Vue down.).
PlayStation™Video app now supports Chromecast*. Download the PlayStation™Video app on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. I also noticed a new setup process on Roku players, letting you mark channels as favorites and add some shows to the DVR when you first start using the app. To be clear, live TV streaming remains a tough business, carved up among a half-dozen competitors that all reportedly operate at slim to negative margins, and these services aren't even offsetting the decline in traditional cable and satellite TV subscriptions anymore. Instead of giving away hardware, PlayStation Vue has instead turned to more reasonable acquisition methods, like a $10 off for two months deal in September, and 50-percent off the first month during Black Friday.
The number of devices you can activate on … |. Jared Newman covers personal technology from his remote Cincinnati outpost. But at least for now, it doesn't look like Sony's giving up the fight. Despite excellent customer satisfaction scores, PlayStation Vue's customer base was stagnating, even as other live TV streaming services were rapidly acquiring subscribers. Local channel coverage is one of the biggest improvements Sony has made in recent months. A little over six months ago, I thought that the story of PlayStation Vue was becoming a tragedy. Vue had also just shed a large number of local channels amid a falling out with Sinclair Broadcast Group, and it seemed to be losing the faith of Sony's leadership, which told investors that the service's "market and future business model remains uncertain." While DirecTV Now and Sling TV were deeply discounting or even giving away hardware to get people on board, Sony never attempted anything similar.
Buy.
You can view PlayStation Video on any of your compatible activated devices by selecting [PlayStation Video] > [My Videos]. (And I, having thought those device deals were a decent idea, come out looking a bit dumber.) PlayStation Vue, by contrast, can now point to high-quality, reliable streams as a selling point, with hard numbers to back it up. According to the firm, PlayStation Vue now has a 0.36 percent rebuffer rate, which refers to how often a stream must stop and load more video. The Fire TV home screen provides quick access to Vue's live channels.
With the PlayStation™Video Android app, you can also rent or buy directly. Those offers seem much more likely to keep customers around for the long run. Read our, [ Further reading: The best streaming TV services ], re-adding the mega-broadcaster's channels, they'd like to avoid embarrassing themselves, stopped offering a $15-per month discount, modest discounts on a Roku Ultra or AirTV Player.
That's much better than the industry median of 1.12 percent, and it even puts Vue above the 95th percentile of services that Conviva measures. By Jared Newman, The higher the bit rate, the better the video quality.
Local broadcast coverage from the "Big Four" networks is now the norm. We steer you to products you'll love and show you how to get the most out of them.
There's something to be said for a live TV service that enthusiastically supports the streaming platforms it's on, rather than just doing the bare minimum. Watch. Live TV streaming services seldom publicize these kinds of figures, perhaps because they'd like to avoid embarrassing themselves.