Sony Pictures Television will shut down it video-on-demand service Crackle by the end of the month.
Sony has not given any reasons behind the closure, but a message on the Crackle website reads: “We’d like to thank all those who have supported and enjoyed Crackle UK. As of April 1, 2014 Crackle’s UK service will no longer be operating.”
“Goodbye. Thanks again to all who have supported and enjoyed Crackle UK.”
Crackle was launched in the UK in 2012 and streamed classic TV series as well as original content. This content included Jerry Seinfeld’s Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee.
Sony also runs the Crackle service in US, Australia, Canada and Latin America. The service will continue in the US where recently it registered 30 million streams in a month. Sony has yet to confirm whether it will continue the service in other territories.
The demise of Crackle comes just as Sony starts to add original content to its PlayStation Network. One of the first shows to be broadcast on the network is Powers an adaptation of a graphic novel by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming. The story concerns two homicide detectives who investigate cases involving people with superhuman abilities.
Sony Pictures Television is producing the show’s 10 episodes with Circle of Confusion. The series was initially in development with FX, which shot an unbroadcasted pilot in 2011.
Microsoft is currently working on a live action TV show based on hit franchise Halo. With Steven Spielberg signed on as an executive producer there’s a good chance that the Halo show will break the curse of video game adaptations being sub-par efforts dominated by fanservice and rubbish acting.
Sony has yet to announce if PlayStation Network content will be available in the UK from launch. Sony has been reticent to launch PlayStation Now in the UK, saying that Europe’s broadband connections aren’t up to supporting Gaikai-based services right now.
While streaming TV content isn’t the same as streaming games, it’s possible that Sony might want to launch PlayStation Network TV when PlayStation Now its ready to come to Europe.
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