(variety.com)
As of Aug. 31, 2021, the PlayStation Store will stop offering movie and TV show purchases and rentals. Sony said it is exiting the transactional VOD business — after more than a decade — because it sees more PlayStation users adopting free and subscription streaming-video services.
“At SIE, we strive to provide the best entertainment experience for PlayStation fans, and that means evolving our offerings as customer needs change,” Vanessa Lee, Sony Interactive Entertainment’s head of video business, wrote in a blog post Tuesday. “We’ve seen tremendous growth from PlayStation fans using subscription-based and ad-based entertainment streaming services on our consoles.”
But it’s a crowded space, with rivals including Apple’s iTunes, Amazon Video, Comcast-owned Fandango and Vudu, Google Play and Roku. Sony evidently concluded that incremental TVOD revenue generated via the PlayStation Store wouldn’t be worth the ongoing investment required to keep it going.
Sony exiting the PlayStation video buying and renting business is just another reminder to invest more on physical media.
Sony will exit the PlayStation video buying and renting business in August