For a while now, Sony Electronics has been packing the company’s Music Unlimited and Video Unlimited streaming services into its smart TVs and web-enabled Blu-ray players. Well, it seems even those Unlimited services have a limit.
Sony just announced plans to roll all of the company’s streaming offerings into the PlayStation Network. The brand will include games, TV, video and music services. Although it’s technically all part of the PlayStation Network, Video Unlimited and Music Unlimited will be rebranded as PlayStation Video (PS Video) and PlayStation Music (PS Music), respectively.
PS Video will continue to offer more than 200,000 TV and movie titles, while PS Music will start to get all of its streaming goods from Spotify. The company actually plans to shutter “Music Unlimited” on March 29, 2015.
By putting everything under the PlayStation umbrella, Sony hopes to grow the network business. As of December 2014, the PlayStation Network and SEN (Sony Entertainment Network) has exceeded 64 million users.
The new option also includes the PlayStation Store, which allows users to download gaming and video content to the PlayStation 4, the PS3 and the PlayStation Vita. Other gaming services include PlayStation Plus for PS4 users and PlayStation Now streaming, which is currently available on the PS4, PS3, PS Vita, Sony TVs and Blu-ray players, and select Samsung smart TVs.
Also worth mentioning is PlayStation Vue (PS Vue), a cloud-based TV service with live, on-demand, and catch-up TV content that launched late last year. The beta went live in in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia for select PS4 and PS3 owners, and will continue to spread out this year.
“We are very excited to offer our wide array of network services including games, TV, videos and music, under the PlayStation brand,” said Andrew House, president and group CEO of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and group executive in charge of the Network Entertainment Business. “We look forward to bringing even more compelling experiences, and an unparalleled breadth and quality of digital entertainment services and content to our customers.”
If you need to decide between a streaming media box and a streaming media stick (such as Chromecast or Roku Stick) read this.
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