Sony has released the PlayStation Vue, signaling the entrance of the company into the TV streaming business.
The service will be available in Chicago, New York and Philadelphia initially, and will allow users to stream TV shows, movies and more straight to their PlaySation 3 or PS4, without needing a cable subscription. But how does it stack up against its competition?
The main competitor to the PlayStation Vue right now is the Sling TV, which runs for $20 per month, compared with the Vue's $50 per month. That's more than two times the price of the Vue, suggesting that Sony will need to offer quite the selection to make the extra price worth it for users.
The Vue certainly might do just that. The new service offers a multitude of shows and channels, and does not come with many of the downfalls of Sling TV, such as the fact that users cannot pause or stream to more than one device at a time using the Sling.
Despite this, the fact that the Vue is only available in three cities accounts for something. Comparing the two services is useless for those who live in cities where the Vue is not yet available, although Sony is likely to bring it to other cities in the near future.
In terms of numbers, the Vue justifies the extra price. The base package of the Vue comes with 60 channels, compared with the 20 channels offered on Sling TV. Sling TV, however, is able to run on far more devices, such as Roku's selection of streaming devices, the Amazon Fire TV, and the Xbox One. The Vue is only able to stream to a PlayStation 3 or PS4.
Simply saying how many channels a service supports doesn't really mean much if all of those channels are small and don't have much interesting content. You can only watch the Weather Channel for so long. Sling TV was largely criticized for its lack of major networks, not having any of the big five TV networks, which include ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and PBS. The Vue has three of these, missing out on only ABC and PBS.
Another important factor for those who live with their family is the fact that the Vue can simultaneously stream to multiple devices, with the Sling TV only able to stream to one device at a time.
For those that have a PlayStation 3 or PS4 but are still not sold on the pricing of the new service, thankfully both the Vue and Sling TV offer seven-day trials of their services.
Despite the fact that Sony's new service is only available to the PlayStation 3 or PS4, Sony says that it will be offering an iPad app in the near future, which will greatly open up the new service.
