HBO and Cinemax Join PlayStation Vue

September 30, 2016 by Douglas A. McIntyre

Sony Corp.’s (NYSE: SNE) PlayStation has a download feature called Vue that turns the gaming platform into something like a pay-TV set-top. Vue has started to create a “network” lineup, to which it just added Time Warner Inc.’s (NYSE: TWX) HBO and Cinemax. The move is another of the nails in the cable TV coffin, a phenomenon known as cord cutting.

The Japanese consumer electronics giant announced:

Starting today, HBO and Cinemax will be available on PlayStation Vue, so you’ll be able to catch up on all the original series and tune in live for the highly anticipated series premiere of Westworld — where western meets science fiction.

HBO executives need a hit series, and in Westworld they hope to have one. Good of Sony to lend a hand.

Sony management also said:

Additionally, we’re also excited to share that a new PlayStation Vue plan, Ultra, will be available to users starting today. Ultra includes HBO and Showtime, plus all the 100+ channels from Elite available for $64.99 or $74.99 per month depending on location.

A cord cutter’s paradise that has tiered plans, the way cable TV does when it offers packages of networks. This makes the PlayStation a hybrid product, which in essence provides pay TV without being part of the old cable model. That is, unless, consumers use the PlayStation the way they use a set-top box. If so, it is back into the future.

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