Sony’s ‘Playstation Vue’ Streams TV On-Demand to Gamers

<p>TV is now coming directly to you via PlayStation Vue&period; The new technology will let people watch live TV and on-demand content&comma; no cable or satellite service required&comma; Sony has announced&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The &&num;8220&semi;Visual Understanding Environment&&num;8221&semi; cloud-based streaming service will include a beta for select PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 owners later this month&period; The idea combines live&comma; on-demand and catch-up TV with a PlayStation user interface that works with a DualShock&period; The past three days of popular programming will be available without the need to schedule recordings&period; It also recommends movies and shows based on your viewing habits and what&&num;8217&semi;s trending&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>You can save shows to the cloud without storage restrictions or scheduling conflicts&comma; Sony said&period; Tag a favorite show and you&&num;8217&semi;ll be given automatic access to episodes of that show for 28 days so you can watch it whenever you like&period; The beta includes 75 channels per market&comma; including the likes of CBS&comma; Fox&comma; NBC and Viacom for the U&period;S&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In light of the controversy surrounding its costly <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;playstation-now-beta-priced-30-per-3-month-rentals&sol;">Playstation Now Beta earlier this summer<&sol;a>&comma; Sony promises a &&num;8220&semi;fair and competitive&&num;8221&semi; price&comma; despite declining to offer further details&period; However&comma; it did confirm that PlayStation Vue will be offered on a month-to-month basis without penalty for cancellation&comma; so no contracts&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Gamers will only need a PS4 or a PS3 and a broadband internet connection&period; A version will be released on iPad soon after the PlayStation console beta&period; Later it&&num;8217&semi;ll be available on more Sony and non-Sony devices&period; Sony Computer Entertainment of America plans a commercial launch during the first quarter of 2015&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Speaking to Bloomberg&comma; Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House said that the service was a great &&num;8220&semi;opportunity&comma; in my view&comma; to fulfill a longer goal of transforming what was in the past a dedicated game device into a proper entertainment hub&period; There is nothing in entertainment as broad as the mass-market live-TV space&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>House additionally claimed said PlayStation Vue was part of Sony&&num;8217&semi;s push to broaden the appeal of PlayStation consoles&period; As of the end of Sep&period; 2014&comma; PS4 had sold 13&period;5m units worldwide&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Via<&sol;strong> <a href&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;businessweek&period;com&sol;articles&sol;2014-11-13&sol;playstation-vue-sony-brings-internet-tv-to-the-playstation">Bloomberg Businessweek <&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;