CULVER CITY, Calif.—Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has launched a new advertising-supported entertainment offering for PlayStation 5 users in the U.S., with Canada to follow. As part of the launch SPT will offer more than 100 FAST channels and a growing selection of free on-demand programming, all accessible natively on the PlayStation 5 console. This will expand to Bravia televisions later this year.

“PlayStation is a place where millions of people come to play, connect and be entertained. By adding premium linear and on-demand programming, we're creating an even richer entertainment experience for users,” said Peter Wood, executive vice president, Consumer Platforms and Services, Sony Pictures Entertainment. “This launch also enables brands to connect with a highly engaged audience through thoughtfully integrated entertainment experiences, creating long-term value for advertisers, content partners and consumers alike.”

The free streaming content launched on Sept. 1 on PlayStation 5 consoles in the new Live TV on PS5 destination, bringing together free ad-supported linear channels and on-demand programming from many of the world's leading media brands alongside content from across Sony's entertainment portfolio. Designed to extend the PlayStation experience, the destination gives users even more ways to enjoy great entertainment through programming centered on popular genres, franchises, fandoms and live events.

At launch, the experience features content from ABC News, A+E Global Media™, AMC Global Media, Amazon MGM Studios, ESPN, Fox, Lionsgate, NASCAR, NBCUniversal, NFL Channel, Radial Entertainment, UFC, and more.

Among the channels are ABC News Live and ESPN8: The Ocho from Disney; Fox Sports, Fox Weather and LiveNOW from Fox; Ice Road Truckers from A+E’s HISTORY; NBC News Now and NBC Sports Now; and NFL Channel, the NFL’s free, 24/7 channel featuring live game-day coverage, game replays, original programming and more.

It also includes exclusive and custom-programmed channels, such as esports broadcaster eCLUTCH's North American debut, Spotify's The Ringer, dedicated Community and The Shield channels, Sony One's Action Hits and Horror Hits (featuring Alamo Drafthouse Cinema's Terror Tuesdays and Weird Wednesday series), and two Crunchyroll anime channels created exclusively for Live TV.

Spanning live news, sports and reality to blockbuster movies, hit television and digital creator content, the lineup offers something for every type of viewer.

Highlights include popular series such as “Hot Ones,” “Wicked Tuna,” and “The Walking Dead,” alongside such films as “The Hunger Games,” “Elysium,” “Hancock,” “Resident Evil: The Final Chapter” and “Escape Room: Tournament of Champions.”

Anime is also part of the offering, featuring globally recognized franchises including “My Hero Academia,” “Naruto,” “Hunter x Hunter,” and “Sailor Moon,” along with a dedicated “Black Clover” channel created in partnership with Crunchyroll.

The launch also unlocks a new premium advertising environment across PlayStation consoles and Bravia televisions. For the first time, brands can reach highly engaged PlayStation 5 users—and later this year, viewers on Bravia televisions—through an advertising-supported entertainment destination integrated directly into PlayStation 5 consoles and, later, Bravia televisions, creating new opportunities for advertisers and content partners alike. At launch, the advertising experience will feature Publica and PubMatic as core ad technology partners, bringing hundreds of Fortune and Nielsen top advertisers to their audiences.

SAN MATEO, Calif.—PlayStation will be strictly a gaming console once again, as the company announced in a blog post that after nearly five years it is shutting down its PlayStation OTT pay-TV service, PlayStation Vue. The official last day for PlayStation Vue will be Jan. 30, 2020.

“We set the bar high and sought to innovate an established industry by delivering a modern TV experience,” the blog post reads. “Unfortunately, the highly competitive pay-TV industry, with expensive content and network deals, has been slower to change than we expected.”

The PlayStation Vue service provided subscribers with live and on-demand content for cable and local broadcast channels. It started with an initial rollout in a few markets and eventually was nationwide by March 2016.

Prior to this announcement, it was being reported that Sony was looking to sell PlayStation Vue.

The company says that PlayStation 4 owners will still be able to access movie and TV content through the PlayStation Store and through partnerships with entertainment apps.

“We are very proud of what PlayStation Vue was able to accomplish,” the blog read. “We had ambitious goals for how our service could change how people watch TV … We want to thank all of our customers, some of whom have been with us since PlayStation Vue’s launch in 2015.”

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NEW YORK—Game console users are no longer just spending hours on end playing the latest version of “Call of Duty” or “Madden,” but are beginning to stream some of their favorite shows and movies through the platforms as well.

The newly unveiled Xbox One X console, which will be released later this year, as well as its predecessor Xbox One S, feature 4K video playback. This allows the consoles, along with Xbox’s main competitor PlayStation 4, to serve as streaming devices for high quality content. And console owners are recognizing this.

A chart from Statista based on Nielsen data reveals that for both the Xbox and PlayStation consoles, users are spending about half of their time every week doing something other than playing games. For the PlayStation, 20 percent are streaming TV shows or movies, with another 3 percent watching downloaded content. For Xbox, those numbers increase to 24 percent for streaming and 2 percent for downloaded content.

The Statista graphic shows that gaming consoles are more than just for gaming these days.

NEW YORK—TV metric provider Nielsen announced that, effective April 25, 2016, it will make brand-level data for streaming video devices and game consoles available. The sampling will include connected peripherals such as Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, PlayStation, Nintendo and Wii boxes. In addition, Nielsen will add information from enabled smart TVs.

Clients will be able to track how many homes across the country own TV-connected devices, which brands that they own, and the growth of these brands over time. Clients will also be able to study how much time people spend with these devices overall and, for Nielsen measured content, link viewing to programs to these specific devices.

This new data is from Nielsen’s national television panel. The 40,000 households that comprise the National panel contain over 100,000 TV sets and over 50,000 TV connected devices measured by Nielsen, the firm said.

In addition to brand-level data, Nielsen is creating a new viewing source bucket called Total Use of Television that adds TV-connected device usage to traditional television usage for a complete view of the use of the TV set.

“The granularity of the brand-level data for TV-connected devices provides clients with in-depth insights into which devices consumers are using to access video content through their TV screens,” said Sara Erichson, executive vice president of Client Solutions and Audience Insights for Nielsen. “The ability to know how many consumers use which brands of TV connected devices, for how often and for how long, is critical for clients who need to make informed content decisions and understand their total audience.”