Sony’s global anime streaming service, Crunchyroll, has surpassed 15 million monthly paid subscribers, according to the company’s latest quarterly earnings report.

To put the niche SVOD's accomplishment in proper context, the much broader reaching Starz finished 2023 with 15.88 million subscribers.

A swell in paid subscribers contributed to a $166 million increase in sales for Sony’s picture department, according to the company’s financials.

That was despite a decrease in both Sony’s theatrical releases and series delivered in television productions.

“Today marks an exciting milestone not only for Crunchyroll, but for the entire anime industry,” said Rahul Purini, pdresident of Crunchyroll in a statement. “It is proof that the rich stories, characters and experiences that our partners create are resonating deeply with fans at record numbers all over the world.”

Currently, the streaming service has the largest global library dedicated to anime, with more than 25,000 hours of content across 50,000 episodes.

The Crunchyroll library includes anime IP such as One Piece, based on the same manga that Netflix adapted last August to critical live-action success.

The news comes just weeks after Crunchyroll updated its branding, introducing a new logo with an eye symbol, a modernized font set and a vibrant theme featuring orange, black and white.

Last year, the streaming service also partnered with Sony Music Entertainment Japan to bring anime-related music videos and concerts to the platform.

Since then, Crunchyroll has featured over 3,300 music-related broadcasts.

Overall, Sony reported a 10% increase in operating profit.

Netflix has hired longtime Sony movie studio executive turned producer Doug Belgrad as VP of film, reporting to recently appointed film chief Dan Lin. 

Belgrad worked for Sony and its Columbia Pictures unit for 25 years, rising to the level of co-chairman, before embarking on a producer career on the Sony lot in 2016. 

At Sony, he oversaw profitable blockbuster franchises including Spider-Man, Bad Boys and Men in Black, as well as acclaimed prestige dramas including The Social Network, Zero Dark Thirty and Captain Phillips. He also oversaw more than 20 Adam Sandler films at the studio, beginning with Big Daddy, Fifty First Dates, Just Go With It and continuing through Grown Ups 2.

Belgrad's production shingle, 2.0 Entertainment, has backed films including Will Smith and Martin Lawrence franchise title Bad Boys for Life.

He'll join Lin, who took over the Netflix film chief role from Scott Stuber back in January. Lin has embarked on a new film strategy of producing fewer movie titles and appealing to a broader spectrum of viewer tastes. 

"We will be leaning on Doug’s great creative instincts, his eye for talent, and his deep relationships across the filmmaking and talent community," Lin said in a statement.

“From the first time we met about this role, I felt we shared a vision about the future of film at Netflix,” Belgrad added. “As an executive and producer, I’ve been fortunate to work with many of the world’s most talented filmmakers and performers. There is no better place to continue that work than Netflix, whose global reach and resources are unmatched."

In October, Best Buy decided that physical media just wasn’t worth the lucrative shelf space it was taking up and announced that it would stop selling DVDs and Blu-rays altogether. “To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy spokesperson told Variety at the time. “Making this change gives us more space and opportunity to bring customers new and innovative tech for them to explore, discover and enjoy.”

Earlier this week, Barstool Sports reported that Best Buy had carried through on that pledge.

Meanwhile, The Walt Disney Co. reached a deal yesterday to license manufacturing and distribution of its physical media in the U.S. and Canada, including DVDs, Blu-ray Discs and 4K Ultra HD Blu-rays, to Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The deal includes the company’s vast catalog of titles, along with any new releases.

As part of the deal, Disney is shuttering its subscription service and online store, the Disney Movie Club, which sold Blu-rays and DVDs of Disney films.

Disney informed a reported 10 million Movie Club members by email as well as on its website yesterday that the service will stop taking orders in late May and shutter entirely on July 20.

Sony will take over marketing and distributing the discs to retailers.

The move comes after Netflix mailed out its last rental DVDs in September, sending out random bundles of DVDs to all remaining customers and telling them to just keep them, on the house. It was one way to get rid of excess inventory. They probably would have just ended up in landfills otherwise.

That leaves Redbox as one of the last left standing in physical media with its DVD rental kiosks. But it’s now a big fish in a rapidly evaporating pond. Chicken Soup for the Soul purchased the struggling rental business in 2022 for $50 million, assuming Redbox’s $325 million in debt in the process.

But in its recent SEC filings Chicken Soup raised “substantial doubt” as to whether it can “continue as a going concern” largely due to that debt.

Last summer, Next TV reported that a tally from the Digital Entertainment Group, which gets sales data directly from studio suppliers, estimated the entire physical rental market in the U.S. at just $502 million for the previous year, with Netflix reporting $146 million in rental business in its final year in business.

Battling in the small-but-super-competitive realm of virtual pay TV operators focused on live sports programming, indie operator Vidgo has announced a new promotion to offer new and existing Sony smart TV users a 30-day free trial of its 150-channel, $79.95-a-month Premium tier. 

The promotion, which has already started, is being highlighted within the Sony TV displays at more than 400 Best Buy brick-and-mortar locations nationwide. The promotion will also surface via the Bravia TV OS homepage on all Sony TVs shipped starting in 2015.

Vidgo is also receiving prominent tile placement of its app icon next to the usual connected-TV app staples like Netflix within Bravia TV. 

In addition to a full complement of right-leaning channels (One America News, Newsmax, and Fox News Channel), privately backed Vidgo delivers perhaps the most robust selection of college conference-focused regional sports networks in the vMVPD ecosystem, not to mention ESPN, and FS1 and FS2, as well as major broadcast networks ABC and Fox. 

Conspicuously absent at this time of year across Vidgo's four packages — which also include the $64.95-a-month, 110-channel Plus offering — are CBS, as well as Turner Networks channels TNT and TBS.  

Since these networks will carry March Madness, the coveted NCAA men's college basketball tournament, starting March 14, Vidgo's aggressive promotion precedes what is undoubtedly a tough subscriber month for a vMVPD that doesn't disclose customer metrics, but does nonetheless heavily market itself around viewing access to live sports. 

Luckily, Vidgo’s promotional partner, Sony, ranked as the No. 3 shipper of smart TVs to the U.S. last year, controlling 9.5% of the market, according to Omdia. 

“We couldn't be more excited to partner with Sony, a global leader and innovator, to include Vidgo prominently on their Sony smart TV homepage, making it easier than ever to access Vidgo’s 40,000 titles live, linear and on-demand,” Derek Mattsson, CEO of Vidgo, said in a statement. ■

That didn’t take long. HBO renewed The Last of Us, a drama series based on a celebrated pair of video games, for a second season just two episodes into the first season. Of course, the numbers were compelling, even for parsimonious Warner Bros. Discovery: 5.7 million viewers tuned in on HBO or HBO Max for Ep. 2, up 22% from a debut that was the service’s second-best since 2010. 

More broadly, the success of The Last of Us signals a couple of bigger strategies that all of Hollywood will be watching closely: the increasing viability of video games as IP resource, and arms dealer as survival strategy. Was Sony’s approach on both right all along, at least in this fast-evolving new era of streaming video? 

Yes, The Last of Us creators, led by executive producers Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman, deserve a lot of credit for making a taut, compelling tale about survival and hope in a horrific, globe-girdling pandemic. 

Mazin knows plenty about post-apocalyptic settings, having created 2019’s claustrophobic and bone-chilling limited series Chernobyl, dramatizing the 1986 nuclear disaster that continues to haunt Central Europe. The show won 10 Emmys, including one of the big ones, best limited series. 

Druckman, by contrast, knows a bunch about video games as co-president of Naughty Dog, one of his industry’s most consistently successful development studios. Along the way, Druckman has co-written a long string of hit titles, including the disquieting world of The Last of Us, set in a time where a version of the Cordyceps fungus that turns ants into zombies starts affecting humans, leading to a collapse of civilization. The original scooped up boatloads of “game of the year” awards in 2014, and spawned a successful sequel, now to be the basis for the TV series’ second season. The two games have sold more than 37 million copies. 

Sony bought Naughty Dog way back in 2001, and has counted on the Santa Monica-based studio as a major supplier of PlayStation games since. More recently, Sony finally began leaning on Naughty Dog as a creator of potential hit TV shows and movies, leaning into a promise it first made back in the 1990s after buying Columbia Pictures and then launching the original PlayStation. 

That cross-platform strategy paid off last February with the release of a theatrical feature based on another Naughty Dog franchise, Uncharted, which has yielded four major games since 2007 that also have sold millions of copies. 

Uncharted’s movie version, starring Tom Holland as treasure-hunting adventurer Nathan Drake, generated $401 million in worldwide grosses, at a time when many people still weren’t going to theaters. Holland was already on a hot streak, coming off the lead role in 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home and its $1.9 billion in worldwide gross, but it cemented his newfound status as a box-office hero. 

Uncharted marked new territory for Holland, Naughty Dog and Sony. Unlike the Spider-Man franchise, Uncharted is home grown. Sony doesn’t need to coordinate with Disney’s increasingly arcane Marvel Cinematic Universe canon, nor pay the Mouse House a share of the profits.  

Now comes The Last of Us, which likely won’t be the last of the home-grown home runs that Sony can harvest from its 20 first-party development studios in Japan, Europe and especially North America. With that opportunity comes the sneaking suspicion that video-game adaptations don’t have to suck, and may be more common going forward, with more common chances of success. 

Hollywood has been turning video games into films for years, perhaps no more notoriously than by Uwe Boll, the pugnacious German producer-director behind a dozen or so cinematic game adaptations -- including House of the Dead, BloodRayne (and its sequel!), and Alone in the Dark -- that collectively earned him a “worst career achievement award” in 2009 from the Razzies. That is bad.  

But the cross-pollination between games and Hollywood has been improving for years, in both directions. Cinematic cut scenes in video games have long relied on film’s visual vocabulary, even inserting visual effects such as lens flare to add to the verite’. 

Now it’s going the opposite direction too. Writer/director Paul Schrader noted briefly on his Facebook page earlier this month that “multitasking, video games and digital filmmaking have changed the language of cinema.” 

The notoriously grumpy Schrader may not have intended his observation as a compliment, but he’s right to note that a $184 billion game industry is also affecting adjacent creative pursuits such as video (think virtual production, Unreal Engine and The Mandalorian, for instance).

Certainly, Netflix is betting on the opportunity, launching a games division not even two years ago to help drive fan engagement with mobile titles based on some of its biggest streaming franchises. Now, the company wants to hire a game director for “a brand-new AAA PC title.” It’s a big step beyond quickie mobile titles into more ambitious and expensive projects, like The Last of Us and Uncharted.

Sony’s studios are as rich a potential source of intellectual property as the books, podcasts and rebooted old shows that fill out everyone else’s feature and series slates. It’s a promise Sony has floated since at least 1994, when it released the first PlayStation, and five years after it bought Columbia Pictures. 

And Sony appears poised to take advantage of the other part of its recent strategy, eschewing the loss-making transformation into a streaming-video company for its library of features and TV series. Instead, Sony has quickly become a foremost practitioner of the arms dealer strategy, selling its projects to just about any platform with the cash to outbid others. 

We’ll find out how well Sony’s strategy is paying off when the company reports its quarterly earnings on Thursday. But the company is already signaling confidence, filing on Jan. 10 plans to repurchase about 1.1 million shares of stock for about $88 million. 

That’s not a big buyback, even compared to the production budget of the next Spider-Man, but  if you’re losing billions of dollars from streaming like most of the rest of the Hollywood media companies, a share buyback of any size is the last thing you announce. 

Confidence in Sony’s approach is reflected in the company’s stock price too. While it’s down about a fourth from last January’s peak, at $90 a share on the NYSE this weekend, it’s still up about 30% since the pandemic first hit, and remains well above prices going back to 2018. Not many competitors can say that these days. 

But Wall Street pressure is growing on all of Hollywood’s media companies to stop losing money from streaming by this time next year. As some of the also-rans in the streaming wars look at their bottom lines, and Sony’s, it’s likely that while Sony may have been the first of the arms dealers, it almost certainly won’t be the last of us.  

Speculation about what Sony will do with its entertainment divisions has been around since, oh, about five minutes after the electronics pioneer first bought its entertainment divisions in the late 1980s. That speculation is perhaps louder than ever amid percolating aggregation fever in Hollywood, but the company’s CEO made it known during CES Week that Sony is big enough to be a buyer, not a seller.   

CES is when Sony Electronics traditionally spotlights the TVs, pro production equipment, cameras, audio gear and other hardware used to create and play back all the movies, music, games and episodic series made by its entertainment divisions. 

Amid a pandemic-thinned Las Vegas gathering, Sony once again showed a herd of humongous high-end TV screens, including a new hybrid OLED/quantum dot technology (OLED-QD for you acronym fans) and high-end Mini-LED screens. 

Of note: the sets will come with Sony’s own streaming service, the still not-quite-developed Bravia Core; the Google TV interface; “Netflix Adaptive Calibrated Mode,” to make sure the streaming giant’s shows always look like they’re supposed to; and “Bravia Cam,” which will watch you watching TV. Bravia Cam is effectively a webcam on steroids for the living room, also bringing gesture controls, and sound and picture adjustments depending on where you sit, among other slightly creepy but useful capabilities. 

Reflexive privacy concerns aside, the Bravia Cam is one way to improve a festering issue for streaming services and the tech behind them: three in five streaming subscribers don’t like their viewing experiences, according to a new Accenture study. 

Nearly half those surveyed said they spend at least six minutes looking for something to watch across all their services. More than half wish their profile could be shared across multiple services. No wonder a study by Deloitte last month predicted 150 million subscription cancellations this year. 

All of which makes Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida’s comments about the company’s future even more interesting as the mid-sized conglomerate tries to remain both independent and relevant amid a bunch of very large competitors. 

“Entertainment is Sony’s DNA,” Yoshida said in an interview released this past week. We’ll disregard that the DNA was added, CRSPR-style, decades after the company was founded. It’s  more or less incorporated now, though the company remains notoriously siloed. 

And it’s true that Sony Pictures Entertainment has had a few great weeks. Its Marvel co-production, Spider-Man: No Way Home, was 2021’s biggest film by a long way, racking up $1.5 billion in theatrical grosses since its Dec. 17 release. That’s just part of what makes Sony big enough to do what it needs to do, Yoshida said. 

“If you look at Sony’s entire entertainment business, including games and music, it is approximately a $45 billion revenue company. It’s not huge, but it’s not subscale,” Yoshida said.

Key, Yoshida said, is Sony’s  “Kando spirit,” making products that bring joy to your consumers. That Japanese concept, no surprise, goes back to the idea of trying to give grumpy consumers a better experience with their streaming services and the tech that delivers it. 

He didn’t rule out making a deal for an established studio or library, though he was vague about plans there. 

“I am interested in any opportunity to enhance our IP capability as well as our (direct-to-consumer) capability,” he said. “I don’t know if a current or incumbent studio is the right target. That is (SPE Chairman and CEO) Tony (Vinciquerra)’s call. But I really want to enhance our IP power as well as DTC power in the area of communities of interest.”

One example of a “community of interest” is the quintessentially Japanese art of anime, which has found an ardent global audience. Sony already had one anime service, Funimation, when  it picked up WarnerMedia cast-off Crunchy Roll for nearly $1.2 billion a year ago. 

Sony used CES to signal another big new entertainment opportunity, unveiling its first ever  electric car and a new division called Sony Mobility. When concept cars like Sony’s moves arrive in the next couple of years, with self-driving capability, there’ll be a lot of demand for all those Sony movies and games when we head into work once a month. 

In the short term, however, other questions still face Sony, especially the issue of scale amid what remains an entertainment ecosystem vexed by the lingering pandemic’s latest surge and a sense that virtually no one is well situated for the next phase of the streaming wars. 

Other companies are prepping for a cloudier next few months. Disney, for instance, this week moved its latest Pixar animated family film, Turning Red, from a theatrical release to a streaming-first debut on Disney Plus beginning March 11. The strategy is similar to what it did with a couple of other backlogged Pixar projects, most notably two-time Oscar winner Soul. 

“Given the delayed box-office recovery, particularly for family films, flexibility remains at the core of our distribution decisions as we prioritize delivering the unparalleled content of The Walt Disney Company to audiences around the world,” said Disney distribution czar Kareem Daniel.

Nobody has definitively figured out how to optimize their streaming vs. theatrical balance amid the pandemic’s flux, though at least some industry consensus seems to be emerging for the longer term. As Daniel’s quote suggests, for at least the first part of 2022, flexibility and opportunism may be the attitude everyone should take.

Amid all that, Sony might not be “subscale,”to use Yoshida’s term. But it’s not clear that Sony can scale up enough to stay that way. Maybe helping the entire ecosystem figure out how to infuse more Kando (and can-do) spirit into an industry that’s increasingly characterized by frustrated and annoyed customers can sustain. ■

John Zaccario has been appointed president of Sony’s GSN.

Zaccario, previously executive VP for ad sales, GSN, will oversee the GSN cable network. He will also be responsible for Game Show Enterprises, getTV, Sony Movies, Sony Cine and the distribution of the Game Show Network and Sony libraries via free ad-supported streaming TV channels.

He succeeds Mark Feldman. Feldman left he company to join Scopely, which bought GSN Games.

“As a longtime member of GSN’s management team, John has demonstrated terrific leadership and delivered strong ad sales results for the organization over the years. We are delighted to have him step into the position of president, leading GSN and our digital and FAST channels business in the U.S.,” said Ravi Ahuja, chair, global television studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment corporate development. “Our game show businesses are incredibly important areas of focus for us and we will continue to invest and expand them into the future.”

Zaccario joined Game Show Network in 2008. Before that he was with ESPN Digital Media, ABC Entertainment, ABC News, Raycom Sports and Katz Television.

“GSN is in the advantageous position of being able to access Sony Pictures Television's vast resources and leadership in game shows. We will continue to demonstrate our commitment to our core audience on Game Show Network and other platforms by producing and distributing exciting game shows that families can enjoy together,” said Zaccario. “I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to lead this high performing team as we navigate the exciting opportunities provided by the dynamic media landscape.” ■

Redbox said it signed a deal with WarnerMedia that will bring a group of movies to Redbox’s ad-supported streaming service.

Redbox also said it will also add titles from Sony Pictures to its AVOD streaming service.

Also: Expanding Redbox Adds Three Free Streaming Channels From Fremantle

“WarnerMedia and Sony Pictures both have amazing film catalogs which our audience will enjoy for hours on end, and they will be completely free,” Redbox CEO Galen Smith said. “We look forward to growing the number of films offered through our AVOD streaming service from both studios in the coming months.”

The WarnerMedia movies start with titles including The Astronaut’s Wife, Collateral Damage and The Long Kiss Goodnight. In future months, Redbox will be able to stream films such as Transcendence, Arthur, Contact, No Reservations, The Upside of Anger, City By The Sea, Ready to Rumble, City of Angels, Pleasantville, The Postman, Boogie Nights, Forever Young, Doc Hollywood, JFK, Joe Versus the Volcano and Tango & Cash.

Sony films coming to Redbox include Resident Evil: Retribution, Underworld: Evolution, We Own the Night and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning.

DistroTV said it has reached deals making its free ad-supported TV platform available on smart TVs produced by Samsung, LG and Sony.

DistroTV was already available via key streaming device partners including Amazon Fire TV, Roku, Apple TV, and Google TV, as well as on mobile platforms like iOS and Android.

With CTV mushrooming, it was important for DistroTV to get more smart TV carriage.

“Our research shows that DistroTV viewership is on average occurring at a 15-times higher engagement rate on large screen devices versus mobile devices,” said Navdeep Saini, co-founder and CEO of DistroScale, parent company of DistroTV. “We’re thrilled to expand DistroTV’s video streaming experience through our new availability on these smart TVs, and to continue to provide our growing base of viewers with the content they crave, on the devices they prefer to watch on.” 

DistroTV says it has a lineup of 150 channels, having added several over the past few months in an effort to appeal to a broader audience.

GetTV, the Sony network showing classic TV shows, said it has made deals to boost its over the air distribution on stations’ secondary digital channels.

New multi-station deals with E.W. Scripps, Tegna and Hearst TV will put getTV on more robust signals, the network said.

Digital over-the-air is a growing part of the industry as more viewers cut the cord and rely on a combination of broadcast signals and streaming services. 

Station groups including Scripps, Tegna and Sinclair have been creating networks to meet the demand from viewers who are choosing not to subscribe to traditional pay-TV services via cable and satellite.

Sony is also looking to add distribution by negotiating for carriage on virtual multichannel video programming distributors. GetTV has been recently added on fubo TV, Philo and Frndly TV.

GetTV is also carried on satellite by Dish.

“We are transitioning the over-the-air distribution footprint of getTV by being more aggressive in the marketplace and aligning with broadcasters who can give us full power, Big 4, stations as shown by these three new multi-station deals and we’re looking to get more,” Tim Carry, executive VP, distribution for Game Show Network and getTV.

With the new deals, getTV is available on broadcast stations covering 85% of U.S. TV households. Of the about 120 stations it is being carried by, 32 are now ABC, NBC, CBS or Fox affiliates. The network is available over the air in 48 of the top 50 DMAs.

GetTV airs classic shows of all eras, mainly from the Sony Pictures Entertainment TV and film library. Its schedule includes comedies Good Times and All In The Family, action series like Walker, Texas Ranger, a “Primetime is Crimetime” weeknight block featuring Kojak, Mike Hammer, Starsky & Hutch and Charlie’s Angels and a slate of vintage westerns all weekend.

AT&T has closed its $1.175 billion sale of anime-focused subscription streaming service CrunchyRoll to Sony. 

CrunchyRoll just passed the 5 million subscriber threshold, with some of those customers paying as much as $7.99 for the premium no-ad tier. The service, which also has free ad-supported iterations, has 120 million users. 

AT&T, which just closed the spin-off of its pay TV business, and is the process of spinning off WarnerMedia, announced the sale of CrunchyRoll back in December, part of an overall push to get back to the core business of connectivity and 5G. 

““Crunchyroll adds tremendous value to Sony’s existing anime businesses, including Funimation and our terrific partners at Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan,” said Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment, in a statement. “With the addition of Crunchyroll, we have an unprecedented opportunity to serve anime fans like never before and deliver the anime experience across any platform they choose, from theatrical, events, home entertainment, games, streaming, linear TV -- everywhere and every way fans want to experience their anime. Our goal is to create a unified anime subscription experience as soon as possible.”

In the past couple of weeks, Netflix made two huge deals that a) reminded everyone which company is still the global leader, by a lot, in subscription streaming; b) kneecapped a smaller competitor; c) gave lesser challengers reason to ponder the benefits of being Switzerland; and d) signaled that ambitious creative talents don’t need Hollywood middlemen to get projects made, or to get rich. 

That’s a pretty good return on investment for the Big Red N, which continues to be a couple of steps ahead of its Hollywood competitors. Right now, the company seems to be turning up aces in a card game not everyone else has quite learned. And it just threw some very large chips into the pot, forcing everyone else to ponder whether they can afford to ante up, too. 

The first of those “big chips” went to buy two sequels to the fabulously successful Knives Out whodunnit, starring Daniel Craig, and produced by Rian Johnson and Ram Bergman. Out of a paltry $40 million in production costs, the original grossed a remarkable $311 million worldwide and became one of the most profitable movies of 2019. 

Lionsgate and MRC backed the original under a one-off deal. When it came time to re-up for the inevitable sequels, though, Netflix stepped in, cutting out both Lionsgate and financier MRC. Netflix signed directly with Craig, Johnson and Bergman for a stunning $469 million, deals projected to net each of them $100 million. 

As shown in the deals for Knives Out 2 and 3 (Forks Out? Soup Spoons Out?), creators with good projects don’t need to rely on traditional Hollywood to get their projects made, nor for big money to eventually arrive as a studio slowly milks traditional global film and TV rights over years to come. 

Proven talent may want to hold onto those sequel rights, as Johnson and Bergman did (while Craig made his detective character irreplaceable). 

I’ve often said the world’s greatest fiction writers are Hollywood accountants, with their ability to make “profit” an ever-receding condition on hugely successful projects. So why wait endlessly for your participation points to arrive when you can bet on your project, get a movie made for a modest price, then parlay it into much bigger money from a streamer with immediate access to hundreds of millions of customers? It’s a safe bet that a lot of stars, producers and agents are busy figuring out how they can pull their own knives out without benefit of those Hollywood suits. 

Meanwhile, Netflix’s second mega-deal also hit Lionsgate where it hurts. In this case, Netflix outbid the indie studio for post-theatrical rights to movies from Sony Pictures, which had been supplying those movies in the “pay 1”window to Lionsgate’s Starz premium cable network/subscription streaming service. 

Beginning next year, Sony’s theatrical output heads to Netflix, which also gets first gander at  Sony’s straight-to-streaming projects. The price: $1 billion over four years. 

For a company like Lionsgate, sizing up that gargantuan price tag had to be a blow. The scrappy independent’s total market capitalization is only $3.2 billion. Netflix, with more than 203 million subscribers and a $245 billion market cap, can do these kinds of deals repeatedly. Just as importantly, it’s not weighed down by older distribution models.

As Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s co-CEO and chief creative officer, said in a recent podcast, the company has benefitted hugely from its lack of legacy film and TV distribution operations. That’s allowed Netflix to plow all its resources into streaming strategy, without worrying about the difficult segue out of still-lucrative but eroding older distribution channels. 

“The one blessing that we’ve had in our business, in our professional existence, is we’ve never had to manage ourselves out of anything,” Sarandos said. “… Like, ‘How are we going to replace our movie theater business?’… We’ve been, ‘Just go where the audience is,’ and we were able to do it pretty nimbly. All these companies make all of their money on advertising and cable television fees. They are going to have to replace that with the revenue on their services in kind of some balanced way, or they’re gonna end up in these weird places.”

Those “weird places” include directly competing with Netflix in SVOD while also managing the increasing decline of broadcast networks, film distribution, and basic cable networks such as ESPN, MTV or HGTV.  

In noting some of the lessons learned from the recent deals, the analysts at LightShed Partners wrote: “For independent studios, the market value of pay 1 rights is soaring to levels never imagined. Being an arms dealer is pretty compelling; we keep wondering how many new SVOD entrants will regret trying to do battle with Netflix, Amazon and Disney.”

Being an “arms dealer” (I prefer the more peaceable metaphor of neutral and prosperous Switzerland) can give smaller operators a more sustainable place in the streaming firmament. For these companies, the questions they face are becoming increasingly clear:

Netflix’s latest deals may encourage smaller companies to take another hard look at the hands they’ve been dealt, and figure out whether they truly can afford the ante for a very expensive poker game. 

TiVo announced that it has signed Sony to a multi-year extension of its IP licensing agreement. 

The video technology company, now a wholly owned subsidiary of Xperi Holding Corp., has conducted a steady stream of IP licensing extensions since settling its four-year patent dispute with Comcast in November, having  also recently signed agreements with cable operator Cox Communications and Chinese smart TV maker TCL. 

Xperi, which controls more than 10,000 patents and patent applications, said during its fourth quarter earnings call that it expects its IP licensing business to generate around $350 million in revenue in 2021. 

“We are proud to extend our licensing agreements with Sony,” said Samir Armaly, president of intellectual property at Xperi, in a statement. “Sony is a creative entertainment company with a solid foundation of technology, and we are excited to build on our long-standing relationship with them.”

Before finally touting the Roku distribution deal everyone had been waiting for, WarnerMedia on Wednesday also announced that its HBO Max app is now supported by Sony’s new PlayStation 5.

Also read: HBO Max, Roku Finally Reach Distribution Deal

The "Max" app upgrades the legacy HBO service into a broader streamed offering. It will soon include new-release theatrical film titles, including Wonder Woman 1984. The new HBO app is also now supported by the legacy PlayStation 4 console. 

Also read: HBO Max, Sling TV not Available on PlayStation 5?

With the integration into Sony’s PS4 and PS5 consoles, the latter of which debuted Nov. 12 with a $399 price, HBO Max is supported by all the major OTT platforms. This includes Amazon Fire TV devices; Apple products including the Apple TV 4K OTT player and iOS mobile gadgets; and Google products including Android TV devices and Android tablets and smart phones. Microsoft’s Xbox consoles, including the new Series X/S, and Samsung smart TVs also support HBO Max. 

Earlier this week, WarnerMedia announced that HBO Max has finally been integrated into the Xfinity X1 and Flex set-tops of America’s biggest pay TV operator, Comcast. 

The only remaining bogy on WarnerMedia’s radar was the biggest one of all, Roku. 

A deal with Roku finally came a month to the day (Nov. 16) in which Amazon and WarnerMedia broke a similar negotiating chasm, and brought HBO Max to the No. 2 OTT platform, Amazon Fire TV.

Also read: Sony PlayStation 5 Hits Stores Nov. 12 Starting at $399

Two weeks ago, Andy Forssell, executive VP and general manager of WarnerMedia's direct-to-consumer products, expressed confidence that ongoing talks between his company and Roku would result in HBO Max gaining entry onto a platform that runs more than half of U.S. connected TVs. “We'll get it done,” Forssell told investors. 

That Amazon deal brought an immediate customer boost for HBO Max, which ended the third quarter with only around 8.6 million of the 38 million total HBO subscribers having upgraded to the new “Max” service. John Stankey, CEO of WarnerMedia parent company AT&T, said last week that around 4 million users have signed up for HBO Max since the company’s Q3 earnings report, which was soon followed by the Fire TV integration. 

There is currently a big chunk of HBO subscribers who are stuck using the legacy HBO app on Roku. 

As for the PS5, it now supports all the major SVOD services. Sony, however, still hasn’t announced PS4 and PS5 support for Sling TV. 

AT&T, looking to get out from under a mountain of debt, said it agreed to sell its Crunchyroll anime business for $1.175 billion to Sony’s Funimation Global Group.

AT&T is reportedly in the process of selling its DirecTV unit and has gotten bids exceeding $15 billion and parts of its Xandr advanced advertising unit are on the block.

Cruncyroll has more than 3 million subscription video on demand subscribers and serves 90 million registered users across 200 countries.

Related: AT&T Asks Tegna Stations for OK to Show Football

“We are proud to bring Crunchyroll into the Sony family,” said Tony Vinciquerra, chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment. 

“Through Funimation and our terrific partners at Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, we have a deep understanding of this global artform and are well-positioned to deliver outstanding content to audiences around the world,” Vinciquerra said. “Together with Crunchyroll, we will create the best possible experience for fans and greater opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere. Funimation has been doing this for over 25 years and we look forward to continuing to leverage the power of creativity and technology to succeed in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.”

Funimation is a joint venture between Sony Pictures Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment’s Aniplex subsidiary. It's streaming services offer over 700 anime series and more than 13,000 hours of content available on 15 platforms and in 49 countries. Funimation’s in-house team designs must-have, exclusive collectibles distributed through major retailers and an e-commerce site.

This week, Sony and Microsoft are both launching their first completely new game consoles in seven years. Though the consoles promise to transform gaming for a new generation, that likely won’t happen for a while, given the relative dearth of hot new launch titles available this week. 

But the consoles do promise to also sell a lot of high-end monitors and solid-state storage drives, give streaming services potentially huge new distribution opportunities, and provide perhaps the first substantial reason for households to buy an even better 4K TV, capable of the kind of high-frame-rate smoothness that could tickle Peter Jackson’s most ambitious technical fancy. 

Those changes began Tuesday, with Xbox releasing its flagship Xbox Series X and low-cost Series S consoles, to be followed Thursday by two flavors of the PlayStation 5, with and without a disc drive. 

Also read: Microsoft to Debut Next-Gen Xbox Consoles Nov. 10

In some key ways, the consoles will be relatively similar: To deliver multiplayer games, online commerce, streaming video and internet connectivity, both will rely on Microsoft’s Azure cloud backbone (in a landmark deal between bitter rivals second perhaps only to Richard Nixon going to China). 

Both companies’ machines will offer app-based access to high-quality streams from big video and audio services such as Apple’s TV Plus, ViacomCBS’ Pluto, Fox’s Tubi, and Disney’s Hulu.

Both companies’ consoles will deliver much better video quality, up to 4K resolution with six times the refresh rate of a standard HD screen. The $300 Xbox Series S is something of an outlier: it costs less, has no hard drive, is far smaller physically, and maxes out at 1440K resolution, still good enough for tens of millions of TV screens in use today. 

But that refresh rate on the flagship consoles can look awesome, should you have the monitor or TV screen to actually showcase it. The problem: 4K screens designed to run games at up to 144 Hz, like LG's $1,400 CX TV, aren’t cheap, nor are they common. 

The same can be said of smaller desk-top monitors capable of those kinds of specs. A 27-inch, 4K monitor capable of up 144-Hz refresh rates typically runs around $1,000, which is hard to justify for all but the hardest-core PC gamers. With the new consoles, however, a number of manufacturers are jumping in with lower-cost, high-refresh-rate entries, and with 32-inch screens to boot, PC Gamer notes. 

Expect the new consoles, and games that push their specs, to help drive broader interest in high-end monitors that could affect all of entertainment.

Microsoft and Sony also tout their console’s use of expandable SSD storage to dramatically speed up the traditionally interminable process of starting up and changing scenes in huge games. Faster storage is not sexy, in any imaginable way, but for frequent gamers, it represents a substantial improvement in quality of life. 

The real differentiator between the two sides this time around, however, has less to do with specs and far more with sensibility. 

Sony is, perhaps understandably, sticking with the hit-driven exclusives that have made PlayStation the dominant game platform of the last quarter century.  Even where it’s sharing a title with PCs, Xboxes and other platforms, Sony often will secure an exclusive window or content to make the game a bit more its own. 

By contrast, Microsoft is finally embracing one area where it has competitive advantage: being the maker not just of the Xbox platform but also the software that runs thousands of PC-based games, including most of those used in esports competitions around the planet. 

The company’s Game Pass service—which provides cross-platform, free access to a huge library of good games for $15 a month—moves Xbox away from a hit-driven focus and more into the camp of games-as-a-service. Game Pass is a bargain for most gamers, and faces no equal (for now) on the PlayStation 5 side. 

More importantly, it updates Xbox for a cloud-gaming era where customers want to play a favored title on whatever device they have, wherever they may be, with friends who may be using different devices. 

For those less enamored with the cloud-service approach, several big game franchises are arriving this week, including Ubisoft’s next Assassin’s Creed (Valhalla), Activision Blizzard’s next Call of Duty (Black Ops Cold War), and a significant revamp of Bungie’s Destiny 2. 

But lots of other titles aren’t yet ready to launch. Microsoft won’t have the next version of Halo, which almost single-handedly made the original Xbox relevant to gamers two decades ago. It won’t arrive until next year, presumably in time to notably goose sales of this Xbox. 

And CD Projekt Red’s hotly awaited Cyberpunk 2077 has been pushed back to December, a victim of the challenges of creating a game for nine platforms, including the new and old consoles.  

More generally, it’s clear Microsoft has learned a few lessons since its disastrous launch of the predecessor Xbox One in 2013. 

For one thing, this time Microsoft has stripped away whiz-bang peripherals like the Kinect camera that could detect a player’s movements, mood and level of excitement. The tech was cool on the one hand, but also deeply creepy, and boosted the systems’ cost $100, making it uncompetitive with the PS4 in the decisive first months of that generation’s availability. Xbox One never recovered, selling about half as many units as the PlayStation 4 over the time since.

Microsoft has also updated a notoriously clunky interface, which should make it more useful for those trying to find their games, channels and other entertainment. 

The bigger challenge for would-be buyers may be finding PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X/S. Pre-sales quickly wiped available stocks, and now comes time to hunt for outlets that may have a few in store, though limited quantities will make that difficult. But even here, things are different from seven years ago. 

Rather than camp out in front of a Best Buy or Game Stop like in days of yore, you’ll be asked to order online, and pick it up when the retailer tells you to, under their pandemic safety protocols. So, maybe it’s a new generation of gaming in ways we never had to imagine before. 

HBO Max and Sling TV are notable omissions from a list of streaming apps published by Sony as being supported on its upcoming PlayStation 5 gaming console, which hits the market Nov. 12. 

A Sony blog post published Thursday said Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Disney Plus, Hulu, Netflix, Peacock, Spotify, Twitch, and YouTube would be available when the PS5 launches.

Sony also published an image of the device’s remote, which has dedicated buttons for Netflix, YouTube, Disney Plus and Spotify.

Also read: Sony PlayStation 5 Hits Stores Nov. 12 Starting at $399

Notably omitted from the Sony announcement were AT&T/WarnerMedia’s HBO Max and Dish Network’s Sling TV, both of which are supported by the incumbent PS4 gaming platform. 

Somewhat strangely, The Verge quoted AT&T reps as saying that their niche SVOD service, Crunchyroll, will be available on the PlayStation app store for PS5.

A distribution impasse would only add to problems for HBO Max, which hasn’t been able to come to terms with the top connected TV device platforms, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. 

AT&T said during its third-quarter earnings call this week that HBO Max is up to 28.7 million subscribers. 

PlayStation 5 debuts the same week as rival Microsoft debuts its Xbox X and S series products. 

The last refresh of the two biggest video game consoles occurred in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Like the new Xbox, PlayStation 5’s principal video streaming upgrades come in the form of screen resolution, with the device supporting 4K. 

And similarly, there will be a big upgrade in terms of computer horsepower, starting with an AMX Ryzen Zen 2 CPU, and AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, 16 gigs of RAM and an 825GB solid-state hard drive. 

The device includes an HD camera and a separately available remote for video streaming ($29.99)

Sony Electronics announced Wednesday that the Apple TV app is now featured on its X900H sold in the U.S. via a software update.

The Apple TV houses the $4.99 Apple TV Plus subscription VOD platform, as well as Apple TV Channels, which lets users sign up for third-party SVOD services including CBS All Access, Showtime and Starz in the Apple TV app. 

The Apple TV app also includes a transactional component that lets users purchase and rent more than 100,000 movies and TV series episodes. 

Sony X900H users can watch these Apple TV titles in 4K HDR and with Dolby Atmos.

Select Sony TVs also support AirPlay 2 and HomeKit2. With AirPlay 2, customers can play videos and other content from their iPhone, iPad or Mac directly to their smart TV. HomeKit allows customers to securely control Sony's smart TVs using the Home app or by asking Siri on their Apple devices.

Sony has been powering its X900H prodduct line in the U.S. with the Android TV 9 operating system. The Apple TV app will be downloaded separately. It's unclear as to whether Apple TV will eventually be made available via Google Play.   

Apple first opened its Apple TV app beyond Apple hardware to third-party devices in January 2019, in a deal that brought the app to Samsung smart TVs. Apple TV has since migrated to other leading smart TV brands (LG and Vizio), as well as the top connected TV device ecosystems, Roku and Amazon Fire TV. 

Sony only controls about 3% of the U.S. smart TV market, according to research company Statista. Samsung, TCL, Vizio and LG collectively control about 71% of the U.S. market. 

"We take great pride in the superb picture and sound quality of our innovative TVs," noted Mike Fasulo, president and COO of Sony Electronics North America. "Now with the Apple TV app, we are making great entertainment even more enjoyable, and easier for customers to access."

The latest iteration of the console wars is set, with Sony on Thursday announcing a Nov. 12 North American debut for its PlayStation 5 gaming system. 

The PlayStation 5 will come in at $399 for an all digital version, and $499 for one that includes an Ultra HD Blu-ray player.

The consoles arrive two days after rival Microsoft debuts its Xbox X and S series products. 

The last refresh of the two biggest video game consoles occurred in the fourth quarter of 2014.

Like the new Xbox, PlayStation 5’s principal video streaming upgrades come in the form of screen resolution, with the device supporting 4K. 

Also read: Microsoft to Debut Next-gen Xbox Consoles Series ‘X’ and ’S’ Nov. 10

And similarly, there will be a big upgrade in terms of computer horsepower, starting with an AMX Ryzen Zen 2 CPU, and AMD Radeon RDNA 2-based graphics engine, 16 gigs of RAM and an 825GB solid-state hard drive. 

The device includes an HD camera and a separately available remote for video streaming ($29.99)

Sony announced the console upgrade in this blog post.

Game Show Network has launched a new, ad-supported video on demand (AVOD) service called Game Show Central as a channel on Pluto TV, on Samsung and Vizio smart TVs and coming to The Roku Channel later this year.

The Pluto TV (channel 182) and Vizio SmartCast TV additions launched Friday, according to Game Show Network, the parent programmer, which is in about 64 million homes and is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment.

“With the launch of Game Show Central, we’re expanding our commitment to game show fans, wherever they are, by showcasing our vast library of past Game Show Network hits including Winsanity, Idiotest and Baggage, to name a few,” Tim Carry, executive VP, distribution, Game Show Network, said in a statement. “We’ve got working commitments from the big ad supported television providers including Samsung TV Plus, Pluto TV, VIZIO and The Roku Channel. The interest and response from these new partners has been terrific.” 

Related: AMC to Launch Streaming Channels on Pluto TV

Amazon has hired former Sony TV and Hulu executive Mike Hopkins to oversee Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video, reporting directly to company CEO Jeff Bezos.

Hopkins, who is departing a leading role at Sony Pictures TV that he occupied since late 2017, will replace Jeffrey Blackburn, Amazon’s senior VP of business development and digital entertainment, who is going on sabbatical.

Jen Salke, who currently heads Amazon Studios, will report to Hopkins, as she did Blackburn.

“Mike comes to us with over 20 years of industry experience at Fox, Hulu, and Sony,” Blackburn said in an email to his Amazon staff, obtained the Los Angeles Times. “He has an extensive track record as a global business leader in media, film and TV — negotiating landmark content and distribution agreements, running marketing operations, leading product/tech teams, and overseeing production of breakthrough television content.”

Tony Vinciquerra, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, sent a note to staff Monday morning, thanking Hopkins for his work at the studio. “From day one he was charged with rethinking the way we run our television businesses,” the memo said “Under his watch, SPT has been transformed into a stronger and more nimble organization, able to pivot and change course quickly in today’s rapidly evolving entertainment landscape.”

It’s expected that Salke will continue to make inroads into the Hollywood production business through Amazon Studios’s Culver City, Calif. headquarters. It’s also expected that Blackburn will return to work at the company, but in a different capacity. 

Amazon has hired former Sony TV and Hulu executive Mike Hopkins to oversee Amazon Studios and Amazon Prime Video, reporting directly to company CEO Jeff Bezos. 

Hopkins, who is departing a leading role at Sony Pictures TV that he occupied since late 2017, will replace Jeffrey Blackburn, Amazon’s senior VP of business development and digital entertainment, who is going on sabbatical. 

Jen Salke, who currently heads Amazon Studios, will report to Hopkins, as she did Blackburn. 

“Mike comes to us with over 20 years of industry experience at Fox, Hulu, and Sony,” Blackburn said in an email to his Amazon staff, obtained the Los Angeles Times. “He has an extensive track record as a global business leader in media, film and TV — negotiating landmark content and distribution agreements, running marketing operations, leading product/tech teams, and overseeing production of breakthrough television content.”

Tony Vinciquerra, chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, sent a note to staff Monday morning, thanking Hopkins for his work at the studio. “From day one he was charged with rethinking the way we run our television businesses,” the memo said “Under his watch, SPT has been transformed into a stronger and more nimble organization, able to pivot and change course quickly in today’s rapidly evolving entertainment landscape.”

It’s expected that Salke will continue to make inroads into the Hollywood production business through Amazon Studios’s Culver City, Calif. headquarters. It’s also expected that Blackburn will return to work at the company, but in a different capacity. 

Amazon, Sony and Amdocs have become the latest companies to announce that they will not be sending their personnel to the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month, due to concerns about the growing coronavirus pandemic scare originating out of China. 

The new announcements Monday morning follow earlier pullouts by LG, ZTE, Nvidia and Ericsson. 

Mobile World Congress is slated for Feb. 24-27. It is one of the biggest trade events in the wireless communications business, if not the biggest. 

“Sony has been closely monitoring the evolving situation following the novel coronavirus outbreak, which was declared a global emergency by the World Health Organization on Jan. 30th, 2020,” Sony said in a statement posted to its website. “As we place the utmost importance on the safety and wellbeing of our customers, partners, media and employees, we have taken the difficult decision to withdraw from exhibiting and participating at MWC 2020 in Barcelona, Spain.”

Added Shuky Sheffer, president and CEO of Amdocs, a major vendor to Comcast and other telecom companies, in his statement: “In the face of the public health concern from the novel coronavirus, we are placing the highest priority on protecting the health of our employees, customers and partners. While we appreciate the precautionary measures put into place by the GSMA, we believe the safest option is not to attend MWC 2020 in Barcelona.”

On Sunday, GSM Association, which organizes MWC, released an updated statement detailing steps its taking against the spread of the corona virus. No travelers from China’s Hubei province, where the outbreak originated, will be permitted access to the event. And anyone who visited other regions of China will need to prove that they have been out of the country for the previous 14 days.

More than 900 people have died in mainland China alone since coronavirus was first detected in late December amid nearly 42,000 confirmed cases.

Mobile World Congress counted around 109,000 attendees last year, with somewhere between 5,000 and 6,000 coming from China, according to the GSMA.

MARINA DEL REY, CALIFORNIA — Sony is in talks with multiple streaming companies to sell assets related to its soon-to-shutter PlayStation Vue virtual MVPD service.

An executive at another streaming company, who asked not to be identified because he is under non-disclosure agreement with Sony, said he had recent talks with the company about transitioning over a user base that still has around 500,000 consumers. The executive, who spoke to MCN at Parks Associates “Future of Video” conference Tuesday, said Sony is also talking about offloading intellectual property and technology assets related to Vue.

The audience base is said is not eroding quickly, despite Sony’s announcement in late-October that it will shutter PlayStation Vue on January 20. The source said Sony’s decision to offer Vue’s last month of service free—in addition to an audience generally satisfied with Vue’s experience—has left the customer base “largely intact.”

The meetings, the source said, are being led by Dwayne Benefield, VP and general manager of PlayStation Vue. And Sony wants to have an agreement in place by the end of this week.

The source said Sony is keenly interested in transitioning PlayStation Vue's personnel. "In Japan, you take care of your family, and I think that's what they want to do here," the source said. "Plan A is to sell it as a lump, but I don't think anyone wants it as a lump."

Next TV’s email to a Sony rep for comment has not been responded to as of yet.

Related: Sony PlayStation Vue: Requiem for a Revolutionary

It was widely reported that prior to that announcement, Sony was shopping Vue, either for sale whole or piecemeal. It’s unclear as to how Sony would transition Vue’s user base.

Executives at rival streaming operations say PlayStation Vue delivered one of the better overall streaming experiences in the OTT business. However, despite a robust price point, the platform’s expenses run high.

Not only does Sony pay a premium to purchase Vue’s live streaming technology from Disney’s BAMTech, its staffing numbers run high, the rival executive source told Next TV. “We do what they do with less than a third of the staff,” he said.

According to the source, Sony spent aggressively on marketing and promotion early on to launch PlayStation Vue. It put itself further in the hole, keeping the more robust service's price point artificially low to compete with Dish's Sling TV, which was first into the market with a much skinnier program offering.

"If they hadn't done that, they'd still be in business," the source said. "It's a sticky service. It probably has the lowest churn in the video industry." 

Since Sony first announced that it will shutter its five-year-old PlayStation Vue service at the end of January, the general reaction from the media-tech world has been a shrug. 

The rising costs of program licensing has rendered the business model for so-called virtual MVPDs like PlayStation Vue moot. In Vue’s case, further raising the price of its $50 base tier—a necessary move to sustain any level of profitability—meant encroaching into a dicey pricing proposition where there was little incentive for consumers to give up their full linear pay TV bundle. 

Certainly, in a business in which rivals Hulu Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV, AT&T TV Now,  fuboTV and Philo are all live-streaming varying iterations of skinny linear network bundles at razor-thin profit margins, it wasn’t a matter of if a vMVPD—or two!—would go, but when. 

That the first to go was PlayStation Vue—which was labeled as “DOA” by a Diffusion Group analyst after the service rolled out in March 2015 without ESPN—wasn’t a surprise. 

“Unfortunately, the highly competitive pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected,” blogged John Kodera, deputy president of Sony Interactive Entertainment, in an October statement announcing the pending closure of PlayStation Vue. “Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business.”

With the announcement coming about six months after Sony divested from Crackle, Vue’s shuttering was also seen as yet another awkward retrenchment by Sony from a digital venture. But Sony’s five-year Vue gambit can be, er, viewed from another perspective: as a noble, ambitious, somewhat quixotic media venture, with the Japanese media-tech conglomerate deemed successful merely for having tried in the first place. 

These days, vMVPDs are generally considered part of the old linear universe. The launches—and pending launches—of Disney+, Apple TV+, HBO Max and Peacock have officially ushered in the age of disaggregation of video services into on-demand, streaming platforms, delivered directly to consumers by media companies. In terms of any re-aggregation and bundling, it’s the Amazon Channels model that’s seen as the future. 

A Revolutionary

Going back five years, to that moment when Sony gestated PlayStation Vue, feels like five decades ago in OTT time. But back then, the live streaming of traditional, linear broadcast and cable networks was viewed as the revolution. Back in 2014, the Wall Street Journal had a string of anonymously sourced reports about Apple working on an ambitious plan to rope in hundreds—nay, thousands—of local broadcast affiliates. Not only would you be able to watch ESPN, TNT and Comedy Central on your iPhone, but you’d get your local ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC station, too. 

Apple was going to make good on the vision of its late founder, Steve Jobs, to “solve the problem” of TV. And that vision was, essentially, a robust version of the vMVPD as we’ve come to know it. 

But it was Sony that actually made good on the promise. 

Launching at CES in January 2015, Dish Network was actually the first vMVPD in the market, bundling a handful of major cable networks in a live-streamed service full of technical glitches, all for $20 a month. 

Sony slowly rolled out Vue, meanwhile, with a robust base-tier package, priced at $50 a month for 85 channels, usually unfurling into new markets only when it could deliver the local broadcast networks. Eventually, Sony came to terms with The Walt Disney Company, adding ESPN, and it began to amass a very linear-pay-TV-like collection of regional sports networks. Its distribution extended far beyond the PlayStation 4 video console to every major OTT and mobile platform. PS Vue even offered a cloud DVR. 

It was the full pay TV experience, signed up for without a contract or truck roll, positioned to be cancelled at any time the consumer chose. But starting with the arrival of AT&T’s erstwhile DirecTV Now back in November 2016, which was priced at only $35 a month, the market changed fast. 

Among the major OTT services, PlayStation Vue routinely ranked high in customer satisfaction, its technology underpinned by Disney’s acclaimed BAMTech. But Sony was never very forthcoming about how many customers Vue had (eMarketer pegs Vue at around 800,000 users). The platform’s traction in the marketplace—light in humble beginnings that included little in the way of national promotion—never seemed to improve as a flurry of new competitors like Hulu, YouTube and AT&T/DirecTV entered the vMVPD scene. 

Indeed, whenever a high-ranking Sony executive would address the topic of PlayStation Vue, words were carefully parsed to see how committed the conglomerate remained to the service. Kodera told Sony investors as recently as May of last year that Vue was still a vital part of Sony’s plan to emphasize subscription services that could play on its installed base of PlayStation 4 consoles.

In the end, though, Sony was never able to develop an edge for Vue with advanced advertising—an attribute that has kept Sling TV, Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV’s backers in the game. 

“Advertisers are eager to tap into the small slice of video ad inventory that operators get as part of most carriage agreements," wrote Seth Shafer, a research analyst with Kagan, a media market research group within S&P Global Market. "Sony largely lacked that same component, so it may have been more challenging for the company to monetize its video ad inventory through Vue."

Sony’s decision to shutter its five-year-old virtual pay TV service, PlayStation Vue, wasn’t all that surprising.

Vue, which was built on a full array of local broadcast and sports channels, had been struggling to maintain its price point amid fast-rising program licensing costs. And competition in the space was intense, with AT&T, Hulu and YouTube all entering the market following Vue’s launch in March 2015.

For his part, Andrew McCollum, CEO of San Francisco-based start-up vMVPD Philo, insists that stakeholders in the live-streaming market aren’t rattled by Vue’s exit. Still, McCollum hopped on the phone with MCN Wednesday to mark Philo safe from the Vue fire, just the same.

MCN: Philo hasn’t disclosed a subscriber number. Are you growing?

Andrew McCollum: We’re growing 11% month over month this year. I feel like we’re on a really good trajectory, and that our fundamental business is very sustainable. We have always taken a very different approach from what you’re seeing play out with Vue. Our content mix is pretty different from the other services. We actually see Philo as a nice complement to other services in the marketplace. People subscribe to Philo to get additional channels that aren’t included in those packages.

MCN: By 11%, you mean customers?

A.M.: I mean active subscribers. We’ve been very successful at retaining people in the Philo ecosystem. And over half of our subscribers had no TV service before signing up for Philo. We have an opportunity to grow the market, not just stave off losses. Also, the increase for revenue is actually higher than 11%. We’ve gotten more efficient on the advertising side, as well.

MCN: What went wrong with Vue?

A.M.: I’ll just say that we liked the folks behind Vue—there was a lot that was good about it. But fundamentally, the economics are challenging for those who are sports- and broadcast-focused.

MCN: Will Philo raise prices beyond its current $20-a-month for 58 channel level?

A.M.: I can’t say that we’ll never raise prices. But we’ve kept our pricing stable. We did go from two packages to one, but we didn’t increase anyone’s bill.

MCN: How many people work for Philo?

A.M.: Philo has around 65 people right now. We try to operate really efficiently, and we definitely have the lowest head count in our space. And our technology is really efficient, too. We develop everything in-house. We’re not paying extra to have vendors build our service. I think when people compare programming costs to monthly subscriber revenue, the technology platform is really under-appreciated. CDN and other costs can be significant, and they’re often ignored entirely by those analyzing the business.

MCN: The streaming market is about to get a lot more crowded with Disney+, Peacock and HBO Max crowding in. How is Philo positioned for that?

A.M.: Again, we look at Philo as a companion to those services. We don’t carry programming from Disney, WarnerMedia or NBCUniversal. I actually think it’s a positive for streaming TV in general. A lot more people are going to be learning how to get TV through Roku, Amazon Fire TV and other connected devices. It’ll make it more appetizing to add multiple subscription services. There will be marketing challenges in the short term—ad real estate is going to be tough to come by, for example. But there are alternatives like direct mail.

MCN: What’s Philo’s next big move? Are you looking to get bought out?

A.M.: We don’t actively look to encourage or court M&A—it’s not how we think about the business. We’re looking out over the next year or two years, and Philo will look a lot different than traditional TV. I think it will become a lot more social, which is something that TV hasn’t really done well. It’ll have unlimited DVR, and it’ll have a better search and discover interface. It’ll be TV with super powers. 

Sony’s decision to shutter its five-year-old virtual pay TV service, PlayStation Vue, wasn’t all that surprising.

Vue, which was built on a full array of local broadcast and sports channels, had been struggling to maintain its price point amid fast-rising program licensing costs. And competition in the space was intense, with AT&T, Hulu and YouTube all entering the market following Vue’s launch in March 2015.

For his part, Andrew McCollum, CEO of San Francisco-based start-up vMVPD Philo, insists that stakeholders in the live-streaming market aren’t rattled by Vue’s exit. Still, McCollum hopped on the phone with MCN Wednesday to mark Philo safe from the Vue fire, just the same.

MCN:Philo hasn’t disclosed a subscriber number. Are you growing?

Andrew McCollum: We’re growing 11% month over month this year. I feel like we’re on a really good trajectory, and that our fundamental business is very sustainable. We have always taken a very different approach from what you’re seeing play out with Vue. Our content mix is pretty different from the other services. We actually see Philo as a nice complement to other services in the marketplace. People subscribe to Philo to get additional channels that aren’t included in those packages.

MCN:By 11%, you mean customers?

A.M.: I mean active subscribers. We’ve been very successful at retaining people in the Philo ecosystem. And over half of our subscribers had no TV service before signing up for Philo. We have an opportunity to grow the market, not just stave off losses. Also, the increase for revenue is actually higher than 11%. We’ve gotten more efficient on the advertising side, as well.

MCN:What went wrong with Vue?

A.M.: I’ll just say that we liked the folks behind Vue—there was a lot that was good about it. But fundamentally, the economics are challenging for those who are sports- and broadcast-focused.

MCN:Will Philo raise prices beyond its current $20-a-month for 58 channel level?

A.M.: I can’t say that we’ll never raise prices. But we’ve kept our pricing stable. We did go from two packages to one, but we didn’t increase anyone’s bill.

MCN:How many people work for Philo?

A.M.: Philo has around 65 people right now. We try to operate really efficiently, and we definitely have the lowest head count in our space. And our technology is really efficient, too. We develop everything in-house. We’re not paying extra to have vendors build our service. I think when people compare programming costs to monthly subscriber revenue, the technology platform is really under-appreciated. CDN and other costs can be significant, and they’re often ignored entirely by those analyzing the business.

MCN:The streaming market is about to get a lot more crowded with Disney+, Peacock and HBO Max crowding in. How is Philo positioned for that?

A.M.: Again, we look at Philo as a companion to those services. We don’t carry programming from Disney, WarnerMedia or NBCUniversal. I actually think it’s a positive for streaming TV in general. A lot more people are going to be learning how to get TV through Roku, Amazon Fire TV and other connected devices. It’ll make it more appetizing to add multiple subscription services. There will be marketing challenges in the short term—ad real estate is going to be tough to come by, for example. But there are alternatives like direct mail.

MCN:What’s Philo’s next big move? Are you looking to get bought out?

A.M.: We don’t actively look to encourage or court M&A—it’s not how we think about the business. We’re looking out over the next year or two years, and Philo will look a lot different than traditional TV. I think it will become a lot more social, which is something that TV hasn’t really done well. It’ll have unlimited DVR, and it’ll have a better search and discover interface. It’ll be TV with super powers. 

Sony announced today that it will shutter its struggling virtual pay TV platform, PlayStation Vue, on January 30, roughly five years after it launched.

“Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business,” blogged John Kodera, deputy president of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Launching in March 2015 alongside Dish Networks’ Sling TV, Sony struggled to gain traction in the low-margin business of live-streamed skinny programming bundles. The issue became more challenging when AT&T, Hulu, YouTube and a number of other virtual MVPD competitors began to emerge in 2016.

Sony never revealed a subscriber number, but widely published estimates suggests the service never got higher than 500,000 users. Like rival vMVPDs, meanwhile, it struggled to hold its price point amid fast-rising program licensing costs—it’s most recent cost bump over the summer put the Vue base tier at $50 a month.

The exit of Vue marks a maturation point for the vMVPD market, which has seen Sling TV maintain its market leadership and its growth. Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV also appear to have momentum, while AT&T Now has declined to around 1.1 million users after nearly reaching 2 million a year ago.

“We are very proud of what PlayStation Vue was able to accomplish,” wrote Kodera, who stressed that the PlayStation 4 console is still a viable option to use OTT apps. “We had ambitious goals for how our service could change how people watch TV, showcasing PlayStation’s ability to innovate in a brand-new category within the Pay TV industry. We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue’s launch in 2015.”

The closure of Vue marks Sony's second major retrenchment from an OTT platform this year, with the conglomerate divesting its interest in Crackle back in March. 

Sony announced today that it will shutter its struggling virtual pay TV platform, PlayStation Vue, on January 30, roughly five years after it launched.

“Unfortunately, the highly competitive Pay TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected. Because of this, we have decided to remain focused on our core gaming business,” blogged John Kodera, deputy president of Sony Interactive Entertainment.

Launching in March 2015 alongside Dish Networks’ Sling TV, Sony struggled to gain traction in the low-margin business of live-streamed skinny programming bundles. The issue became more challenging when AT&T, Hulu, YouTube and a number of other virtual MVPD competitors began to emerge in 2016.

Sony never revealed a subscriber number, but widely published estimates suggests the service never got higher than 500,000 users. Like rival vMVPDs, meanwhile, it struggled to hold its price point amid fast-rising program licensing costs—it’s most recent cost bump over the summer put the Vue base tier at $50 a month.

The exit of Vue marks a maturation point for the vMVPD market, which has seen Sling TV maintain its market leadership and its growth. Hulu with Live TV and YouTube TV also appear to have momentum, while AT&T Now has declined to around 1.1 million users after nearly reaching 2 million a year ago.

“We are very proud of what PlayStation Vue was able to accomplish,” wrote Kodera, who stressed that the PlayStation 4 console is still a viable option to use OTT apps. “We had ambitious goals for how our service could change how people watch TV, showcasing PlayStation’s ability to innovate in a brand-new category within the Pay TV industry. We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue’s launch in 2015.”

The closure of Vue marks Sony's second major retrenchment from an OTT platform this year, with the conglomerate divesting its interest in Crackle back in March. 

They’re still debating whether the human eye can even perceive the improvement from 4K and 8K at screen sizes below 85 horizontal inches. And never mind that there’s still very little 4K content on the U.S. market, despite projections that 4K TV’s will be in 50% of U.S. homes by the end of the year.

But with the release of Sony’s next-generation PlayStation 5 video game console—which looks like it’s slated for sometime in 2020—the 8K era will officially dawn in North America, whether anyone gives a fork or not.

Speaking to Wired, the architect behind the upcoming console upgrade, Mark Cerny, described the major highlights of the upgrade, which include fancy new AMD chipsets and a solid state hard drive. Other hyped benefits include ray tracing—the processing-intensive capability of reproducing how light interacts with different objects and materials, which helps in creating ever-more-immersive gaming environments.

And then there’s 8K resolution capabilities.

The widely adopted HDTV standard offers about 2 million pixels on the screen in a 1,920 x 1,080 resolution format. A 4K display packs in about 8.3 million pixels at a resolution of 3,840 x 2,160.

As for 8K, it really brings the cow bell, with 33.2 million pixels crammed into the same screen area in a 7,680 x 4,320 resolution.

Research company Strategy Analytics thinks that around 500,000 8K TVs will be sold worldwide this year, and that 8% of U.S. homes will have these sets by 2025.

Content is another story.

“The availability of true 8K content is going to remain extremely restricted for some years,” noted Michael Goodman, director of TV and media strategies for Strategy Analystics. “Many content providers and distributors are still migrating to 4K from basic HD and will see little justification in investing in 8K when so few viewers will see any benefit for many years. Instead, they should focus on other important image enhancement technologies such as HDR (high dynamic range) and HFR (high frame rate).”

Regardless, interjecting the 8K discussion, however nascent, into one of the most important transoms into the American living room is interesting.

Sony disclosed in January that 91.6 million PlayStation 4 consoles had been sold worldwide since the console was introduced in 2013, making it the best-selling video game device in the world. In markets like the U.S., the PS4 is not just a video game console—it’s a key delivery agent for OTT services such as Netflix and Sony’s own PlayStation Vue lived-streaming service.

Will the PS5 usher in the 8K era in the U.S. before the 4K era even gets fully deployed?

As you can probably guess, there are lots of folks who doubt that, starting with gaming and digital entertainment and lifestyle pub Polygon. The blog wonders if Sony is really capable of packing in the necessary computer hardware to deliver things like 8K and ray tracing in a console that will be priced will under $1,000.

The blog notes that even top-of-the-line PCs have difficulty hitting 4K at a stable 60 frames per second.

And ray tracing? Polygon noted that Nvida has strived to enable real-time ray tracing with its new RTX line of graphics cards, targeted to high-end gamers and prices exceeding $1,000.

“The PS5’s GPU and CPU will be designed by AMD with ray tracing in mind from the beginning,” Polygon explained “But since most of the technology required to deliver 4K (let alone 8K) with ray tracing at playable frame rates isn’t available for consumers yet, it’s difficult to say just how well this might work in a console, or how powerful these chips will have to be.”

While Roku might have powerful new competitor in its quest to festoon the global smart TV market with its OTT ecosystem, it did get a powerful voice of support from Chinese smart TV manufacturer TCL.

Asked by enthusiasts blog Mac Rumors whether it will begin supporting Apple’s AirPlay 2 standard, as other major tube makers have, TCL responded, “we are committed to Apple.”

Earlier this week, just before the start of the CES confab in Las Vegas, Apple announced that it will offer AirPlay 2 support to Samsung, LG, Vizio and Sony. Owners of TVs made by these companies will now be able to natively watch movies and TV shows purchased in Apple’s iTunes Store on their sets, without having to hook up an Apple TV device.

These users will also be able to do things like port over music from their iPhone to their TV, just as they would a smart speaker. Various integrations with Siri voice commands will also be enabled.

The intrusion of Apple into the smart TV market is notable for Roku, which was the first major operator of an OTT ecosystem to identify the potential of the market several years ago.

Earlier this week, Roku announced that 27 million users are regularly tapping into its ecosystem, a metric driven to a large extent by owners of smart TVs that enter the Roku UX every time they turn on their set. 

A federal judge has ordered pirate television service BTV to cease retransmitting TV channels, stop selling its BTV set-top box and pay several parties, including Dish Network, $6.6 million stemming from a copyright infringement suit they filed against the company last year.

Dish was one of six plaintiffs that filed suit against BTV parent Dibia Networks and its chief Abdellah Hamead in September in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York to cease what they called the pirating of their content. The plaintiffs were Asia TV USA Ltd. (parent of Zee TV); MSM Asia Ltd. (a unit of Sony Pictures); Star India Private Ltd. (parent of the Star channels); Viacom18 Media Private Limited (parent of Colors); ARY Digital USA LLC (broadcaster of Urdu and English language channels), and Dish Network L.L.C. Dish was included because it holds certain exclusive rights for the network plaintiffs to distribute their content in the U.S.

Judge George B. Daniels of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued his decision on Oct. 11.

BTV has been selling a set-top box which the court said illegally delivers a variety of television channels and programs from India, Pakistan and other countries. The boxes, which retail for just under $300, are sold with the promise that customers can watch shows and movies for free 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. BTV had not obtained the rights to deliver these shows, instead it established a pirate broadcast network that captures entire channels -- like Zee TV, Colors and Sony -- and streams them through its set-top without permission, the lawsuit said.

“BTV is yet another example of an operation that deceives customers into thinking they are buying a legitimate service when, in fact, it’s piracy run rampant,” said Sony Entertainment SVP International and head of the Americas Jaideep Janakiram in a statement.

The court also addressed third parties that provide services enabling BTV’s piracy to flourish, ordering them to cease delivering support. The court specifically ruled that retailers must stop selling the BTV set-top box, and that parties providing online services to BTV, such as web hosts, must cease supporting the BTV service.

“Not only has the court protected our rights as a content owner, it has held both BTV, and the key players in the broader ecosystem that enable piracy to flourish, accountable for their actions,” added Janakiram.

Comcast has launched a beta version of its Xfinity Stream app that will let Samsung smart TV owners use their Comcast pay TV subscription without leasing a set-top box.

Samsung was the first “partner” announced back in April 2016 for the Xfinity TV Partner Program, which uses open standard technologies to provide access to Xfinity TV content and program guides on smart TVs and other IP-enabled devices obtained at retail.

With the app, Comcast-subscribing Samsung smart TV users can watch live, on demand and DVR programming, as well as local broadcast and public educational and governmental channels, all delivered over Comcast’s managed network.

Related: Comcast Launches ‘Xfinity TV Partner Program'

“In its beta format, the Xfinity Stream app for Samsung smart TVs will give customers the ability to download, use and explore the app while Comcast continues to test, improve, enhance and refine the experience to ensure it works smoothly,” said Mike Gatzke, VP of video subscription services for Comcast Cable, on a company blog post.

The Xfinity Stream app is already available for a range of Roku devices, is expected to reach Sony and LG smart TVs by the end of of the year. Also by the end of 2018, Comcast expects to have the app enabled on two-thirds of U.S. smart TVs.

“Smart TVs are absolutely part of our strategy and our vision,” Comcast’s Xfinity Services chief Matthew Strauss told Fast Company in July. “When you look at the video landscape today, there are more choices than have ever been available before at the touch of a remote. It’s a good time to be alive if you like television.”

Xfinity Stream is already available for iOS and Android. 

While PlayStation Vue, one of the first two virtual MVPDs to enter the market, appears to have stagnated in subscriber growth, and has suffered some major programming defections, Sony seemingly remains committed to the product.

Case in point: The company has announced the addition of 200 local ABC, FOX and NBC affiliates, bringing its total bundle of local broadcast stations under retransmission agreement to around 450. (Sony has a list of its available locals here.)

Users in the relevant markets will now be able to live-stream local network affiliates rather than just receiving on-demand prime-time programming from the major broadcast networks tied to these stations. (Notably, according to Cord Cutter News, users won't have DVR access to these channels.)

Related: Sony Boosts Vue with PlayStation Cloud Remote, Sign-up Promotion

Carving out affiliate deals is an tedious, time-consuming expensive process. But both YouTube TV and Hulu with Live TV—which came into the vMVPD market two years after PlayStation Vue—have had audience-growth success with an aggressive strategy of adding local stations.

These services haven’t publicly released their subscriber numbers. But according to Strategy Analytics estimates released last week, Vue has around 745,000 users compared to around 955,000 for Hulu Live, even though the former has been in the market far longer.

Related: Sony PlayStation Vue Launches ESPN College Extra

Vue also announced the addition of ESPN College Extra. And earlier in August, Sony debuted a new PlayStation 4 controller more adept at TV watching that video game play.

For Sony, these are important indicators that it remains firmly behind its three-year-old vMVPD, which lost 24 affiliate tie-ups in 23 markets in May when it didn’t renew its retrans deal with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Sony also let its carriage deal with Viacom lapse last year.

While not yet very profitable for any of the more than half-dozen major participants involved, virtual pay TV services continue to add customers. But the market is crowded with services priced at around $40 a month and offering basically the same channels. For users, the decision as to which service to choose often comes down to which platform has the right combination of local channels and regional sports networks in their individual market. 

In May, Sony’s CEO Kenichiro Yoshida told reporters that Sony has no plans to shut down PS Vue, as it is bringing in useful user data.

Sony Corp. has debuted a new remote control for its PlayStation 4 console, one more adept at lean-back TV watching than game play.

And with the debut of the $30 Cloud Remote, Sony is offering a free 30-day trial of its virtual MVPD service, PlayStation Vue.

The new device pairs with the console via BlueTooth and can also control certain TV monitor functions including volume and power.

Related: PlayStation Vue Busts Out

The handheld device can be used in lieu of PS4’s native DualShock 4 controller, which is more fit for gaming. It will hit the market on September 19, available only at GameStop locations and on Amazon.

According to figures released by Strategy Analysts, PlayStation Vue ranges as the fourth biggest vMVPD, amassing around 745,000 subscribers since it debuted in 2015.

Among the major virtual pay TV services, Vue’s year-over-year growth of 59.4% is the second slowest next to market leader Sling TV, which expanded by only 25.9% from Q2 2017 to Q2 2018. 

Sony Crackle Wednesday released the official trailer for the second season of its scripted drama series Snatch.

The series, which stars Rupert Grint, Luke Pasqualino, Lucien Laviscount, Phoebe Dynevor and Juliet Aubrey, is loosely based on the popular 2000 film of the same name. Grint serves as executive producer along with Alex De Rakoff, Aaron Ginsburg, William Green and Rupert Grint.

If the virtual MVPD market is headed for a shakeout, Sony doesn’t expect its entry, PlayStation Vue, to be one of the services that doesn’t make it.

RELATED: Virtual Pay TV Market Set for a Shakeout: Analyst

Sony has no plans to shut down PS Vue, as it is bringing in useful user data, Sony’s CEO Kenichiro Yoshida told reporters, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Speculation about the future of PS Vue swirled this week when a presentation (PDF) given at Sony’s investors relations day characterized that the market and future business model for PS Vue “remains uncertain.” Sony also said that market growth for PlayStation VR is below expectations, but added that utilizing those businesses to strengthen user engagement is also key.

News out of Sony this week also centered on word that the PS4 is in its “final phase,” which in reality means that the next iteration of the platform is still three years out. Notably, the majority of PS Vue streaming now occurs on non-PlayStation devices.

What is more certain is that Sony’s OTT TV service will continue to find new ways to get local programming to subscribers, as PS Vue announced it is now offering a new national live Fox feed in 34 markets that arrive in the wake of a dispute with Sinclair that resulted in the loss of Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC feeds in some areas.

Sony has not releases subscriber figures for PS Vue, which launched in March 2013 and is believed to be trailing behind other OTT TV services such as DirecTV Now and Sling TV.

However, from a customer satisfaction standpoint, it’s in the right video category – streaming.

RELATED: YouTube TV is Losing Money, But is There a Path to Profit?

Consumers are more satisfied with video streaming services such as Netflix and PlayStation Vue than they are with traditional TV services – and leading by a big margin – according to a new report from The American Customer Satisfaction Index.

The 2018 version of the ACSI Telecommunications Report, found that overall customer satisfaction with subscription TV services fell 3.1% to a score of 62 (out of a possible 100), an 11-year low.

By comparison, video streaming services, which includes SVODs and virtual MVPDs, pulled in a score of 75.

Netflix, PS Vue and Twitch led the streaming group with a score of 78.

Among traditional pay TV services, AT&T U-verse topped the charts in 2018 with a score of 70, followed by Verizon Fios TV (68), Dish (67) and DirecTV satellite TV (64). Optimum (Altice USA) was the highest-scoring cable operator with a 62, down from 66 in 2017.

Among the pay TV group, picture quality got high marks, with call center satisfaction on the opposite end

The disparity in customer satisfaction comes as people continue to defect to lower-cost online video services alongside OTT experiences that have “fundamentally changed buyer expectations,” ACSI said.

“OTT operators have raised the bar by providing greater personalization, lower prices, more mobility – and much better customer service,” ACSI said in the report. 

Sony has introduced a set of mobile-facing features to PlayStation Vue, its OTT TV service, based in part on subscriber feedback.

Mobile Sign-Up: New customers can sign up for PS Vue directly from PSVue.com (on phones, tablets and PCs), even if they are outside the home.

In-Home Regional Sports Network Access: Subs can now access supported regional sports networks when they are travelling to another city.

Out-of-Home Local Broadcast Station Access: When travelling with a PS Vue-supported device, subscribers can watch the local broadcast channels that are available in the city that they're visiting.

PS Vue has not released subscriber numbers, but The Diffusion Group estimates that it had about 600,000 as of the end of 2017.

RELATED: Virtual MVPDs Ended 2017 with 5.3M Subs: Study

Sony is the latest major TV maker to sign on for Comcast’s Xfinity TV Partner program, announcing that it will support the MSO’s app on sets running Android TV starting sometime in 2018.

Accessible in the home of the Comcast customer, the app will look and feel much like Comcast’s X1 experience and support live TV (including local broadcast network feeds), VOD and the pay TV provider’s cloud DVR service. That content is not delivered into the home over-the-top via a public internet connection, but instead is delivered via Comcast’s private, managed IP network. Customers that take advantage of it won’t need a traditional set-top box from Comcast, but will still require a compatible IP cable service gateway from the operator.

Sony joins LG Electronics (webOS) and Samsung (Tizen OS) among TV makers that have announced agreements with Comcast’s Xfinity TV Partner program, an initiative introduced in April 2016 that relies on HTML5 technology standards. LG is expected to offer the Xfinity TV Partner app on 2017 and 2018 smart TVs that run webOS sometime next year. Comcast expects to begin trials on Samsung TVs after it receives a software releasae from the TV maker, but plans to launch a beta of its on Samsung TVs in early 2018.

RELATED: Comcast Launches ‘Xfinity TV Partner Program'

Under a separate partner app agreement, Roku launched an Xfinity TV app in beta form for certain streaming player models and integrated Roku TVs in January 2017.

Sony, whose cable-focused retail ambitions have run hot and cold over the years, including some scuffling around tru2way/OCAP, is the first TV maker that leans on Android TV to join the Comcast app program.

RELATED: Tru2way Stalls At Retail

“We’re pleased to partner with Comcast in bringing their Xfinity TV application to Sony Android TVs, allowing our customers to directly access great content on Sony 4K HDR (High Dynamic Range) TVs,” Kevin Brinkman, director, product marketing, TV and projector at Sony, said in a statement. “We look forward to working closely with Comcast to deliver consistently high-quality programming to our best in class smart TVs, combining Android TV streaming with the immersion of 4K HDR experiences via their advanced managed network.”

"We remain focused on providing our customers with more choice and flexibility in how, when and where they access the content included with their Xfinity TV subscription,” added Mike Gatzke, vice president, video subscription services, Comcast Cable. “Providing our customers with the highest quality entertainment experiences across devices remains a top priority, so we are thrilled to partner with Sony to give our customers access to the Xfinity TV app directly on Sony Smart TVs.”

Looking to put a jolt into sales, the makers of higher-end virtual reality platforms have all implemented deep price cuts ahead of the holiday buying season.

While these across-the-board price cuts indicate that consumer interest in VR products has slowed, one analyst called them a typical move to entice people to jump in during this early-adopter phase of the VR market.

But it’s clear that three key VR players — Sony, HTC and Facebook-owned Oculus — are cutting prices to move the sales needle.

Among those moves, Sony said it has reduced the price of two VR product bundles by $50 — a combo with the Play-Station VR headset and camera now sells for $399, while an “all-in” bundle that includes the headset, camera, two motion controllers and a gaming title, PlayStation VR Worlds, is going for $449.

Meanwhile, HTC has chopped the sales price on its VR platform, the Vive, by $200 to $599. That was coupled with a report from Bloomberg that HTC is exploring strategic options that could lead to the sale of its VR business, and that the Taiwan-based company has already held discussions with Google.

Under a temporary summer promotion, Oculus in July cut the price of its Rift VR headset/hand-tracking Touch controller bundle in half to $399, followed by a permanent reduction on the product combo to $499.

All of those players are fighting for share in a small but growing market. With mobile VR headsets factored in, the Oculus-powered Samsung Gear VR headset kept its lead through Q1 2017, according to SuperData. The Gear VR was followed by the PlayStation VR (Sony has shipped more than 1 million units so far), Google Daydream mobile VR headsets, the HTC Vive, and the Oculus Rift.

Related: Another 'Promising' Week for Virtual Reality

Mike Bloxham, senior vice president of global entertainment and media at Magid, said the recent wave of price adjustments indicates that the companies are gearing up for the holiday buying season while also looking for ways to accelerate sales amid a period of sluggishness.

He also said that the price cuts should also drive enthusiasm for early adopters, stressing that their behavior doesn’t represent that of the mass market.

Citing recent Magid research, Bloxham said price remains the biggest impediment for consumers considering taking the plunge on VR by a wide margin (64%), compared to a perceived lack of content (34%).

Bloxham remains bullish about VR. “I think it does have huge potential,” he said, noting that product shipments are not the clearest barometer on the level of usage occurring the market.

“VR has the potential to shake things up and create a whole bunch of opportunities,” he added. The expectation, he said, is that VR will not only take hold in media and entertainment, but also in areas such as engineering, health care and education.

Magid and the VR/AR Consortium, a group that includes Turner, Warner Bros. and The VR Society, recently released a study based on a survey of about 2,000 U.S. consumers, showing that about one-third of all U.S. adults have used a VR device.

The study also indicates that the U.S. market of VR owners and “intenders” stands at 44 million.

Seeing is apparently believing, as 50% of those who have tried a VR headset reported “loving” the experience on a PC or console device, while 90% reported “liking” it on a high-end PC or console headset.

Apparently looking to pick up some sales momentum heading into the holidays, Sony has cut the price of two VR product bundles by $50.

Sony announced Monday that a bundle with the PlayStation VR headset and camera costing $399 will arrive at retailers on September 1. Joining the mix is a $449 “all-in” bundle that includes the headset, camera, two motion controllers and PlayStation VR Worlds.

Prices for both bundles represent a $50 discount, Variety pointed out.

RELATED: HTC Might Sell its VR Business

In February, Sony told The New York Times that it had sold 915,000 PS VR units, putting in on pace to beat an internal goal of selling 1 million headsets six months after sales began. It crossed that 1 million mark during the summer.

RELATED: Sony Has Sold 915,000 PlayStation VR Units: Report

Sony announced new pricing as it gets ready to release a batch of new games for its VR platform, including The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR, Doom VFR, and Bravo Team, and following a software update to the PS4 that enables enhancements for PS VR such as 5.1ch and 7.1ch virtual surround sound in Cinematic Mode.

Other VR companies have made similar price cuts. HTC last week reduced the price on the Vive headset from $799 to $599, following a cut on the Oculus Rift. 

Arris, already facing a complaint from Sony at the U.S. International Trade Commission, has fired back by filing a patent complaint of its own at the ITC that targets Sony-made smart TVs, including several Android TV-powered models, gaming consoles, mobile phones, and Internet-connected DVDs and Blu-ray players.

The complaint, spotted by FierceCable and filed by Arris on May 9, centers on the following Arris patents and Sony products:

-No. 6,473,858: “Method and Apparatus for Broadcasting Data with Access Control”  (Accused Sony Android TV, PlayStations and Blu-ray/DVD players);

-No. 6,934,148: “Electronic Chassis and Housing Having an Integrated Forced Air Cooling System” (PS4 Slim)

-No. 7,113,502: “Communication and Management System and Method” (Accused Sony Andrioid TVs, and PlayStation consoles)

-No. 7,752,564: “System and Method for Focused Navigation Using Option Type Filters” (accused Sony TVs)

-No. 8,300,156: “Remote Control Device with Integrated Display Screen for Controlling a Digital Video Recorder”  (accused Sony mobile products);

-No. 9,521,466: “Method and Device for Receiving and Providing Programs” (accused Sony Android TVs, PlayStations and Blu-ray/DVD players).

The complaint seeks a limited exclusion order, barring entry into the U.S. all allegedly infringing consumer electronics devices from Sony, and a cease and desist order that would prohibit the sale for import, sale after importation, offer for sale and distribution of those products.

Arris’s complaint comes about a month after the U.S. ITC announced that it voted to start an investigation in response to a complaint lodged by Sony Corp. alleging that certain boxes and gateways imported and supplied by Arris to Comcast and DirecTV infringe on certain Sony patents.

RELATED: ITC to Investigate Sony Patent Claims Against Arris

The U.S. International Trade Commission announced Wednesday that it voted to start an investigation in response to a complaint lodged by Sony Corp. regarding claims that certain boxes and gateways imported and supplied by Arris to Comcast and DirecTV infringe on certain Sony patents.

Arris declined to comment on the investigation, but the ITC said the probe includes Arris set-tops supplied to Comcast for its Xfinity brand and boxes supplied to DirecTV for its Genie brand, as well as “media or telephone gateway products.”  

Arris is a key box supplier for Comcast’s X1 platform. AT&T closed its acquisition of DirecTV in July 2015.
Per the ITC, the complaint alleges violations of section 337 of the Tariff Act.

Various units of Arris and Pace are both listed as respondents in the investigation (337-TA-1049)

Arris acquired U.K.-based Pace plc in January 2016, a move that broadened Arris’s lead in the set-top sector and filled a satellite TV gap in Arris’s set-top business. That followed Arris’s purchase of Motorola Home in April 2013.

RELATED: Arris Wraps Up Pace Acquisition

The US ITC said it will make a final determination in the investigation “at the earliest practicable time," but will set a target date for completing the investigation within 45 days after institution of the investigation.

In a clear sign that its talks with broadcast TV station groups outside the O&Os are progressing, Sony PlayStation Vue confirmed that it has extended access to live local CBS feeds in nine more markets.

Per a PS Vue official, the following markets and stations are now part of the virtual MVPD’s live  TV lineup:

-Austin: KEYE (Sinclair)

-Charlotte: WBTV (Raycom Media)

-Cincinnati: WKRC (Sinclair)

-Cleveland: CBS9 (Raycom)

-Grand Rapids: Newschannel3 (Sinclair)

-Harrisburg: CBS21 (Sinclair)

-Salt Lake City: KUTV2 (Sinclair)

-San Diego: CBS8 (Midwest Television)

-West Palm Beach: CBS12 (Sinclair)

Cord Cutters News reported Wednesday that PS Vue had recently added CBS live streams in some new markets.

The extensions of CBS live local feeds in select Raycom, Sinclair and Midwest Television markets comes about two months after PlayStation Vue confirmed that it was offering the live local feeds of the Big 4 (ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox) in all of their respective owned and operated markets.

“We continue to have discussions with local broadcast station owners and will be working to add more local stations to TV markets across the country,” a Sony spokesperson said via email.

Sling TV, a virtual MVPD owned by Dish Network that offers a mix of skinny bundles, has also been making progress in its ability to offer live local broadcast TV channels on its OTT-TV platform.

In markets where it doesn’t offer certain live local broadcast TV feeds, PS Vue’s new national “Slim” packages, launched in mid-March, provide next-day, on-demand access to shows from those broadcasters.

PS Vue also introduced a new app for the Amazon Fire TV Tuesday that features a faster navigation menu along with an update specifically for second-generation Fire TV boxes that support 60 frames per second and deliver a richer HD picture.

PS Vue is also offered on PlayStation 3 and PS4 consoles, Roku players and Roku TVs, the Fire TV Stick, via apps for Android and iOS mobile devices, and is optimized for the Google Chromecast streaming adapter.

Sony has not released sub figures for PS Vue, which debuted on March 18, 2015,  but Bloomberg reportedrecentlythat the servicehad eclipsed 100,000 subs,

PlayStation Vue, Sony’s OTT-TV service that debuted in March 2015 in a set of markets, has more than 100,000 subs, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, including one that put the total at about 120,000.

Sony, the report said, has seen the rate of subscriptions rise since it launched a trio of “Slim” pay TV packages that are available on a national basis rather than limited to a small batch of markets.  Last month, Sony confirmed last month that PlayStation Vue now offers the local feeds of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in all of their respective owned-and-operated markets.

PS Vue recently teamed on asubscription drive promo with ESPN that’s running during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament.

While 100,000-plus subscribers doesn’t yet make PlayStation Vue a major pay TV provider, it does inch it closer to another virtual MVPD, Sling TV, which had more than 600,000 subs, per a report from The Wall Street  Journal in February. Bloomberg said that number has since surpassed 700,000.

In addition to the launch of national multichannel packages alongside some a la carte options, PS Vue has been expanding its device reach. It launched an app for Roku players and Roku TVs earlier this month, adding to existing support on PlayStation 3 and PS4 consoles, Amazon Fire TV boxes and the Fire TV Stick, iOS devices (the PS Vue mobile app), and the Google Chromecast (initially via  iOS devices). Sony is close to launching a PS Vue app for Android smartphones and tablets.

PS Vue, which offers a cloud DVR, markets three packages: Access ($29.99 per month, or $39.99 in cities with major live local broadcast stations); Core ($34.99//$44.99); and Elite ($44.99/$54.99). It also offers standalone/a la carte services such as Showtime, Machinima, Fox Soccer Plus, and “Premium Pack” bundle (Showtime and Epix Hits).

Even with its device diversity and national pay TV packages, some analysts remain unconvinced that PS Vue can rise to the level of becoming a major OTT platform in part because its offerings are not materially cheaper than services from traditional MVPDs.

Several others are developing or rumored to be developing virtual MVPD offerings, including Apple, Samsung, YouTube, Amazon, and Hulu, which plans to launch an OTT-TV service next year.

Adding a key streaming platform to its repertoire, PlayStation Vue, Sony’s OTT-TV service, has launched an app for Roku players and integrated Roku TVs.

Sony also said it will add support for  Android smartphones and tablets sometime next week.

The addition of Roku and coming expansion on Android broadens the streaming platform universe for PS Vue, which also supports PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 consoles, Amazon Fire TV boxes and the Fire TV Stick, iOS devices (via the PS Vue mobile app), along with optimization for the Google Chromecast (initially via iOS devices).

Roku recently crossed 10 million active monthly users, also supports an authenticated app for Charter Communications and has a deal in place to create an app that will support Comcast’s full suite of pay TV services, including the X1 cloud DVR.

“What we want to do is to be like Switzerland in this mix and offer as much choice as possible and have the best content offering, and then give tools so you can watch what you want on the terms that you want to pay for," Matthew Anderson,  Roku’s chief marketing officer, said last week during a keynote chat here at the NextTV Summit & Expo  in San Francisco.

PS Vue, which has teamed on a subscription drive promo with ESPN during the Euro 2016 soccer tournament, launched a trio of “Slim” pay TV packages that are available on a national basis in March. Last month, Sony confirmed last month that PlayStation Vue also offers the local feeds of ABC, CBS, Fox and NBC in all of their respective owned-and-operated markets.

PS Vue, which offers a cloud DVR, markets three packages – Access ($29.99 per month, or $39.99 in cities with major live local broadcast stations); Core ($34.99//$44.99); and Elite ($44.99/$54.99). It also offers standalone/a la carte services such as Showtime, Machinima, Fox Soccer Plus, and “Premium Pack” bundle (Showtime and Epix Hits).

We’ve known the price. Now we know the date.

The PlayStation VR will debut in the U.S. on October 13 and support more than 50 games between that launch date and the end of 2016, Shawn Layden, president of  Sony Interactive Entertainment America and chairman of Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios, announced Monday night at the company’s E3 keynote.

“2016 is a seminal moment in virtual reality,” he said. “The time has finally come for everyone to enjoy VR in their own homes.”

The PlayStation VR, which connects to the PlayStation 4, retails for $399. Sony, which has a higher-end, 4K-capable PS4 in the works codenamed “Neo” that should bring more pixels and horsepower to its VR-enabled gaming lineup, has previously announced a $500 bundle for the PlayStation VR that includes a camera and two motion controllers.

Sony will have a big base to market its VR platform to, as the CE giant has already sold more than 40 million PS4s worldwide.  Sony will be competing in the sector against two high-end VR platforms -- the Oculus Rift ($599) and the HTC Vive ($799), which must be tethered to high-performance PCs.

During the keynote, Sony showed off several VR titles, including Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing VR Mission, Batman Arkham VR, and Final Fantasy XV. 

Update: Sony said Star Wars Battlefront: X-Wing VR Mission will be exclusive to PS VR this holiday season and will be free for owners of Star WarsBattlefront. Sony also estimated that PlayStation VR titles will range from $9.99 to $59.99, and that PlayStation Move controllers will be available as a two-pack bundle for $99.99. 

Confirming rumors that have been swirling for months, a top exec at Sony toldThe Financial Times that the CE giant is developing a “high-end” version of the PlayStation 4 that will support games and video in 4K resolution. 

Notably, Sony doesn’t plan to trot out the new device, codenamed “Neo,” at next week’s E3 show, but House said the new product will carry a heavier price tag than the current-gen PS4, which recently surpassed 40 million units sold worldwide.

"It is intended to sit alongside and complement the standard PS4," House told the publication, adding that Sony “will be selling both [versions of the console] through the life cycle."

Both the current-gen and Neo versions of PS4 will support the PlayStation VR headset, which will arrive in October and start at $399.

Sony has not announced any 4K content partners for the Neo console. However, Netflix and Amazon Video are examples of streaming apps that already offer libraries of 4K titles. It’s not yet known if PlayStation Vue, Sony’s OTT-TV service, will use Neo as an opportunity to add 4K content to its programming mix. 

Shedding some light on the technical underpinnings of Sony Pictures Home Entertainment’s new 4K streaming service, "Ultra," CSG Systems International said its Ascendon digital service platform is helping to power the offering, which launched April 4.  

That service enables consumers to buy and stream movies and TV shows in the Ultra HD format via Sony Bravia 4K TVs that use Android TV, including some titles that employ High Dynamic Range (HDR). Customers can also visit the Sony Pictures Store site to redeem UltraViolet codes that come with the SPHE 4K UHD discs sold in the U.S.

Launched about a year ago, CSG’s Ascendon is a digital services platform that can be overlaid on existing business support systems to help service providers rapidly launch new digital services without uprooting existing infrastructure. Others using it include Comcast (for its Xfinity On Campus product), Cineplex Entertainment, and ESPN, among others.

“This latest step we’ve taken with CSG allows us to bring new 4K video to market in a way that pairs the highest possible TV viewing quality with an intuitive and powerful consumer experience,” said Jake Winett, vice president of Consumer Services and Platforms, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment, in a statement. “Sony Ultra4K brings together a strong catalog of content with a portfolio of devices that creates a stunning consumer experience that is unmatched in the industry.”

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment (SPHE) and Sony Electronics will launch their new 4K streaming service — dubbed Ultra — on April 4, offering Ultra High-Def (UHD) films for download for $30 each.

Announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Ultra will be available initially on Sony 4K Ultra HD TVs with Android TV, with SPHE bundling in four movies for consumers who buy a new Sony UHD set this summer.

Ultra will also be compatible with UltraViolet, Hollywood’s buy once, play anywhere content cloud service, backed by Sony and four of the other major studios. Ultra films will also include digital extras, similar to those found with DVD and Blu-ray Discs, and will be enabled with high-dynamic range (HDR).

Read more at B&C.