PlayStation Users Will Not Lose Access to Discovery Shows After All

Highlights

• Discovery TV shows will not be removed from PlayStation, easing the concerns of upset users.
• Sony updated its licensing agreements with Warner Bros., ensuring users can access previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months.
• The sudden removal of purchased shows highlights the risk of owning digital items with limited access and little recourse for consumers.

Sony will not be removing PlayStation access to Discovery TV shows after all. At the beginning of December, many users became very upset when it was announced that access to a number of Discovery TV shows on PlayStation would be removed at the end of the month. Additionally, purchased shows would be removed from user libraries, and the list of affected programs had over 1300 items.

This announcement sparked outrage not only because it came with very short notice, but it also reinforced the fear of many people who purchase digital content. The move away from physical games and movies is potentially a big gamble for consumers because digital items aren’t really owned, and access can be removed at any time with little warning. And the fine print often means that buyers have little recourse to recover money spent or regain access to their purchases.

Luckily, the imminent removal of dozens of Discovery TV shows from PlayStation has been halted and users will no longer lose access on December 31. Sony amended the original announcement to state that it has “updated licensing arrangements” with Warner Bros., which owns Discovery, and the content removal will no longer take place. However, the new agreement only guarantees access to the purchased content for the next 30 months, after which Sony will hopefully again renegotiate licensing the shows. GamesIndusty.biz shared a longer statement from Sony on the matter:

“Similar to other services, we do not own the licensing rights to TV/movie content that was previously available for purchase on PlayStation Store. However, we’ve worked with Warner Bros to update our licensing agreements, ensuring that consumers will be able to access their previously purchased content for at least the next 30 months.”

Some people may not even remember that it was once possible to purchase movies and TV shows from the PlayStation Store. That practice was halted in 2021, when Sony opted to offer subscriptions to streaming services instead. The logic behind this move was twofold: it eliminates worries about licensing and, in recent years, people tend to subscribe more than buy.

This is not the first time PlayStation users have lost, or been at risk of losing, access to TV shows they’ve purchased. All Studio Canal content was removed in August 2022 due to expiring licensing agreements, much like what would have happened with the Discovery content.

There have been other recent reminders about the potential pitfalls of consumers going fully digital. Though they received refunds, subscribers lost access to entire libraries of games when Google Stadia shutdown in January 2023. And even if they were able to repurchase those games on other platforms and some developers offered a way to transfer saves, many people lost hours, weeks, or months of progress and characters they had likely grown attached to. Even something as simple as a PlayStation Network or Xbox Live outage means a temporary loss of access to purchased games and, with some games going online only, even physical versions can become unplayable.