Sony to Remove Purchased Movies from UK PlayStation Libraries Due to Licensing Expiry
Sony has informed UK PlayStation users that over 500 previously purchased movies and shows will be removed from their libraries by September 1 due to lapsed licensing agreements with StudioCanal. The move highlights the fragility of digital ownership.
Sony recently notified its PlayStation customers in the United Kingdom that they will no longer be able to access previously purchased movies and shows from production and distribution company StudioCanal. Starting September 1, affected customers will lose the ability to stream 551 titles from the PlayStation Store.
In a legal notice first reported by gaming news outlet PlayStation LifeStyle, Sony stated that affected customers would lose access to titles including "Outrage: Way of the Yakuza," "Paddington," "Paddington 2," "Pan's Labyrinth," "Rambo 3," "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" – "due to our content licensing agreements." As of September, Sony will remove any affected titles that UK users purchased from their PlayStation library, according to the notice.
It remains possible that Sony may still reach a deal with StudioCanal by September 1, or even after, that would allow users to keep watching the content they bought. This happened in 2023 when Sony announced it would have to pull 1,318 seasons of Discovery shows from customers' libraries. A few weeks after that announcement, Sony said it would not pull the content because it had updated its licensing arrangements with Discovery.
