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Sony adds 200 local TV channels to PlayStation Vue

Sony adds 200 local TV channels to PlayStation Vue

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Sony

Sony today announced the addition of 200 local broadcast stations for the big four networks — ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC — to its PlayStation Vue TV subscription service. The 200 channels are spread across select markets. With this latest batch, Sony now claims that Vue offers “more than 450” ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC stations throughout the US.

That’s not to say that all customers can access all four channels. Some Vue subscribers can only get one or two of them — and sometimes none at all in certain areas. A full list of the new local stations can be found here.

Do more local networks make up for the lack of Viacom?

Seperately, today Sony added ESPN College Extra as an optional add-on service for Vue, providing sports fans “with the country’s best regional college games and matchups from top conferences, including football, basketball, and baseball throughout the college sports season.”

Sony is trying to bulk up Vue’s programming choices after having lost Viacom networks like Comedy Central and Nickelodeon. And more recently in May, Sinclair pulled the ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC affiliates that it controls off the service, leaving those local customers only with on-demand streaming for the four networks.

Today’s large add of 200 local stations nationwide pushes back against the idea that Vue’s content options are shrinking. Sony says the new local stations come “at no extra cost,” but that’s a little misleading. These days everyone pays the same price for PlayStation Vue. But in the service’s earlier days, customers who lived in areas where Vue didn’t yet offer live, local ABC, CBS, Fox, and NBC stations could pay less money for a “slim” Vue subscription.