You will no longer be able to purchase or rent TV shows and movies through the PS Store from August 31, 2021.
The PlayStation Store doesn't only sell games and DLC. You can also rent and buy TV shows and movies on your PS4 and PS5. Well, you can for now. It has been revealed via the PlayStation Blog that later this year, it will stop offering movies and TV shows on the PS Store. They will be removed on August 31, 2021.
"We have decided to no longer offer movie and TV purchases and rentals through PlayStation Store as of August 31, 2021," part of the relatively short statement reads. PlayStation cites the success of subscription-based services available on its platforms as the reason why it has decided to remove TV shows and movies from its store.
It's a valid point to make. Chances are when you want to watch a movie or TV show, you seek it out on a streaming service you are subscribed to. It's incredibly likely that what you want to watch will be on one of the major streaming services available, even if you aren't subscribed to it at the time. It's also very likely that you use your PS4 or PS5 to access those streaming services and watch whatever it is you were looking for.
The blog post does confirm that any movies and shows previously purchased from the PS Store will still be in your library and can be viewed at any time. That means if there's anything you want on your console so you can watch it without having to trawl streaming services, now is the time to buy and download. After this August, that will no longer be possible.
PlayStation is clearly paying close attention to what its console are being used for other than its games. The PS5 doesn't have a web browser, and PlayStation has already confirmed it sees no reason why it would ever add one in the future. Consoles have been used for a lot more than gaming for a while now, but clearly, enough people aren't using their PlayStations to surf the web and rent movies. Plus, no one is using their Switch to watch Netflix. The streaming service is still inexplicably absent from the platform.