The UK PlayStation Network Video Store has had a minor upgrade. You can now buy individual TV episodes – plenty in HD – to download and keep on your console.
There is certainly plenty of choice with US TV shows making up the bulk of the content. It seems like this is the fruition of a deal between Sony and Sky TV. Shows like Arrested Development, Breaking Bad, South Park and Two and a Half Men will attract PlayStation fans who don’t keep a Sky subscription and are reluctant to use grey-area download sites or other means, like iTunes, to get the best of US television.
Unfortunately, the selection of episodes on offer does seem a little bizarre. For example, there are seasons one and six of 24 available but nothing in between or after. Dollhouse season two is available but there’s no first season.
Episodes seem to be priced between £1.49 and £2.49 each, in SD or HD but there’s no option to buy full seasons of shows.
Is this something you’ll use?
Thanks, poultee
DirtyHabit
Nope….
TrialByFire
However unlike Xbox, you don’t have to pay for Xbox Live and a Sky Subscription to use it, you can pay for only what you want, and none of the other crud.
Surely that’s a win for consumers, and nobody LIKES spending money with Microsoft or Sky unless they really have to…
SpikeyMikey23
Pretty expensive per episode. Can’t see me getting any use from this, although I would greatly appreciate a free trial Sony (wink, wink)
Origami Killer
I with you, quite expensive for a single episode :/
BrendanCalls
Agreed, I thought it was pretty expensive too.
Grey_Ghost13
yeah, although I like the idea of owning the episode on my console, it’s just too expensive per episode. Digital download pricing structures on all formats, games, movies & now TV show really need sorting out on the PSN, just way to expensive across the board.
cc_star
Just wish SkyGo would come to the PS3
Tomhlord
I can’t use the video store at all as an old, dead, PS3 has my video activation on it. Hopefully this will change when this new super website for deactivation appears! If it does and provided there is a discounted price for buying a season then I would be interested in quite a few US shows I’ve never caught up on.
Jambo
Hey man you can clear activations through the qriocity site now I think.
colossalblue
isn’t that already active here: https://account.qriocity.com/login.action;jsessionid=344D83A9E4F2E2F1DA0E965882ED1877.lvp-p2-npgrct02-2209 ?
Or is that just for the game activation?
Jambo
There were video and comic options also so should be fine for Toms requirements.
Dlaf42
the site is for game activation, you should phone up playstation support and have a word with them about resetting your video activation on older dead machine..its the same process for sing star tracks being transferred to new machine if the registered machine dies.
Jambo
If they bring out season passes that aren’t too expensive then maybe, not for single episodes though.
sparkyscrum
Do they work on the PSP/Vita tho? That would make them worthwhile.
Dunks
Way too expensive. They should at least price down older season to get people using the thing…
cam the man
Yeah, it would have to be a lot cheaper before I’ll consider using it.
Anyway there are loads of streaming sites so you could, more than likely, find them a lot cheaper or even free somewhere else.
dude90
TBH it might have been there for a couple of weeks, somebody tweeted it last week and I checked it out then. There really isn’t much of a selection though, just the odd season or two and very few shows to even choose from.
dude90
I hope they add more soon.
colossalblue
I thought I’d heard something about it before but when the tip came in, I searched online and nobody had mentioned it being live (literally found nothing about it) so I checked myself. I assumed what I’d heard before was the announcement that it was going to happen… did you actually look at the store weeks ago?
dude90
I hadn’t checked the video store in months, it was only because of the tweet I had to check it out. I don’t buy anything from Video Store because there isn’t much of stuff that I’d like to buy.
commuterzombie
They’d need to drop the pricing to around £0.79 per ep SD and £0.99 per ep HD and have a much wider range of eps available before this would interest me. I’d only pay £1.49 per ep if it was brand new (i.e. just aired in the states).
Dunks
Totally agree
david
Is this service “Instant on” like XBLS which is just stunning IMHO.