Using a PlayStation to watch your favorite shows is super convenient for the most part, except when you lose content you've already paid for and you thought was safe on your account. Due to an ending agreement between Sony and Discovery, lots of previously purchased shows will disappear from your library.
The trend has been going on for years: video games are purchased digitally and the shelves with hundreds of DVDs and Blu-Rays are a thing of the past. Lots of PlayStation 5 owners don't even have a disc drive anymore.
Purchasing games, music, shows or movies digitally has lots of advantages like saving space or eliminating the risk of accidentally breaking or scratching up a disc you've once held near and dear to your heart (I am still not over scratching up my Princess Mononoke disc). But as soon as licensing arrangements end, it doesn't even matter if you paid for the content – you'll lose it.
That's what's to come for those that purchased Discovery shows in the PlayStation Store.
Purchased Discovery Content Won't Be Available On PlayStation Anymore
Sony made the announcement that come December 31, 2023, "due to [their] content licensing arrangements with content providers, you will no longer be able to watch any of your previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from your video library."
That's a hard hit to take, especially for fans of cult classics like MythBusters or Naked and Afraid, but also for friends of the cheap reality TV Discovery is infamous for (Sex Sent Me to the ER Season 1, anyone?). Here's a complete list of the content that will be no longer available in 2024, no matter if you paid for it.
That's not the first time Sony pulls a stunt like this. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me, I guess. At the end of the day, purchasing movies or shows digitally is nothing more than a loan without an official return date – you may keep them until the end of time or your day could be ruined and the fun ends after a month if you're unlucky.
That's not even a Sony-only phenomenon: the same thing goes for Amazon Prime as well, for example. When licensing agreements run out, there's not much the user can do to save their previously paid for content.
If you have Discovery content you've already purchased but haven't come around to watch yet, now might be the right time to catch up on My Strange Addiction Season 5 or My Teen is Pregnant and So Am I Season 1.