The PlayStation Vue television service will be seeing a price increase this month, with all packages receiving a five dollar price bump as of today. The only exception is for existing customers, who will keep the old price until the end of the month.
The official PlayStation.Blog website has outlined the reasons behind the price increase for PlayStation Vue in a new post. The reason why the price for the service is increasing is due to the rising costs for content across the current media landscape, which has prompted Sony to do the same. The price increase is the second one in recent memory, as another five dollar price increase for the PlayStation Vue packages also happened back in July of last year.
The price increase means that the Access package will now cost $49.99 a month, the Core package will cost $54.99 a month, the Elite package will cost $64.99 a month, and the Ultra package will cost $84.99 a month. The details for the channels that come with each package can be found on the official PlayStation Vue website here.
The PlayStation Vue service debuted in 2015 and was introduced as a way of appealing to people who were abandoning traditional television channels in favor of programming provided by streaming services, such as Netflix and Hulu. PlayStation Vue allows the viewer to access numerous television channels through their PlayStation system, which even includes premium channels, such as HBO and Showtime. As of 2018, the PlayStation Vue service had roughly three-quarters of a million subscribers.
There is currently a lot of competition in the streaming market and it's easier than ever for the average consumer to have access to a device that connects their television to the Internet. The PlayStation 4 is currently the most popular home console, but there is stiff competition from personal computers and smartphones in terms of the platforms that people use for streaming video, so an expensive service like PlayStation Vue might seem less attractive to someone who exclusively watches Netflix and YouTube videos.
The five dollar price increase for PlayStation Vue goes into effect as of today, with existing customers retaining the original price until July 31, after which point it will increase as well.