Photo

Television fans who want to break free from a traditional TV subscription now have more options than ever to pay for what they want to watch, and how they want to watch it, Emily Steel reports.

On Wednesday, Sony added to the flood of new offerings with the introduction of its PlayStation Vue streaming service, which offers a bundle of channels like CBS, Fox and USA, along with a personalized, searchable approach to watching live and on-demand television. It costs $49.99 a month.

With Vue, Sony joins Apple, Dish Network, HBO and others who are aiming at a growing number of people who pay for Internet but do not subscribe for television. Some are so-called cord cutters, who have canceled their subscriptions to cable or satellite services, and others are “cord nevers,” who never subscribed in the first place.

But all the choices are likely to force viewers to make more choices, too — deciding what they value most and what they can live without. And they might need a calculator to determine whether their monthly bills will rise or fall.

“The reality is, each individual service is not all that important, but when you start to layer lots of different options together, you have the ability to piece together your own bundle,” said Rich Greenfield, an analyst with BTIG Research. “I don’t think it is about saving money as much as it is about empowering consumers to build the experience you want.”

Explore a guide to streaming services »