Playstation Vue is now useless… ‘Directv Now’ Hopeful?

Sony has recently announced some changes to its PlayStation Vue Live TV Streaming service, in which they informed us that they were dropping all Viacom channels, which include Spike, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central,  MTV, BET, VH1, and others.

This change pretty much renders the service useless and not now worth of the asking prices for each package, because even with their smallest $30 Access Package, you only get a handful of channels, none of which are really that exciting.

I really only watched Spike, Fox News, and Nikelodeon (who doesn’t love SpongeBob Marathons at 3am?), and now with only one of those channels still available, It doesn’t seem worthy of the $30 asking price.

You still get on demand content from ABC, Fox, and NBC, but Vue’s DVR and on demand content has always been buggy and unwatchable, for example, the playback video will always constantly skip around so you’ll end up watching the same scene multiple, which is very confusing. This happens alot when watching Fox News replays. So, it’s not worth it for on Demand content either, but Vue does give you GO access to many of these networks, which allows you to download their GO apps and login as you could from any other cable/satelite provider — something Sling doesn’t offer, and I’ve found many of those apps to work flawlessly playing back content.

I can’t really justify continuing to pay the $30 monthly fee, and even upgrading to Vue’s $70 package doesn’t offer much value

It is really sad though because the service did seem so promising. I was actually planning on canceling my Sling service, and just using Vue, although i’d lose the A&E Networks channels, which Vue has never offered. But, now due to this change, its a no brainer: ditch Vue and keep Sling.

 

The few channels you now get on the access package.
The few channels you now get on the access package.

 

You really don't get too much now even with the $70 Ultra Package
You really don’t get too much now even with the $70 Ultra Package

Sling offers an addon for $5, which provides Spike, which I subscribed to, but it still doesn’t offer Fox News.

chrome_2016-11-23_11-54-21But there might some good news on the horizon. Directv announced their new Streaming Service: Directv Now, which ATT’s CEO says will consists of a bundle of 100 channels, for only $35 a month, which sounds like a sweet deal. Bad news is that he didn’t, and so far ATT hasn’t provided any info of what channels will be available. Hopefully they wont consist of only useless channels that hardly anyone would ever want to watch, which Vue currently offers.

My dream bundle is to have the A&E Networks (History channel), Fox News, and Viacom channels all in one affordable package package. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Directv now should be announced and available on November 28th, which is about a week away. Meanwhile, you can sign up for updates on ATT’s Directv Now site: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/content/directv-now

For now, Sling is the way to go if you want live Streaming TV. I haven’t had any issues with Sling in a super long time, and their current channel bundles provide alot of entertainment with top brand channels, and for a few bucks you can add more channels, such as the ‘Comedy Plus Extra” package, that comes with Spike, MTV, and some other channels for only $5.

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