Will People Actually Buy Sony's Expensive New Streaming Service?

How much is too much to pay for a movie, particularly when you're watching it on your own couch? Film lovers have been asking this question since the days of VHS rentals; however the streaming revolution keeps bringing it up again and again.

If you've spent the last year trying to work out whether forking out for Netflix, Stan or Presto is worth it, here's another service — and expense — to consider. No, we're not talking about the much-discussed Screening Room, which wants to charge a premium to stream first-release films at the same time as they're in cinemas. Instead, Sony's finally getting in the game, with a brand new service that's causing us to ponder our bank balances.

Called Ultra, due to land in the US on April 4 on Android-compatible Sony 4K TV sets (yep, already niche), and kicking off with 40–50 titles such as The Walk, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Ghostbusters, the streaming platform will enable viewers to watch 4K-quality films in their own homes (something Netflix is already doing). But — and this is a very big but — it'll cost $30 per movie.

Yes, if and when it comes to Australia (with details of local availability unknown at the time of writing), you'll need to lay down three tenners for every single flick — or the same amount it'd cost two people to see a film on the big screen. That's not much of an incentive to sign up, particularly given that cheap Tuesday tickets continue to excite cinema-goers in droves. On the other hand, $30 is the same price you'd pay for a new release DVD, and you do get to keep a copy on Sony's UltraViolet cloud storage solution. So, the real point of contention is: do you really want to pay extra for better streaming quality?

As always, waiting and seeing is the only real answer, though we're not optimistic that anyone will rush to Ultra given the price. 4K content is already available on Netflix for $14.99 per month, after all — and even if you've lost your sneaky access to the US version of the service, their local range is still much larger than Sony's planned catalogue.

Via The Next Web.