PlayStation Vue continues to be one of the more curious and ambitious projects out of PlayStation that continually improves as it should. Sony has always had a checkered background when it comes to services and has seen a fair share of their efforts eventually shutter like

• Qriocty
• Music Unlimited
• Movies Unlimited
• PlayMemories Online
• TV SideView

and more recently, even PlayStation Now, their streaming gaming service, has seen a shift in focus. What makes PS Vue different however (putting aside PS Now) is that unlike all the other services, it’s run by PlayStation, is a US effort, and people who use it typically love it, something that’s not often said about Sony services which originate from Japan. Now, the TV streaming service is gaining a big feature that’s entirely aimed at sport junkies, though it’s a also a good way to consume a lot of news at once and gauge on a daily basis how messed up the world has gotten.

Dan Myers Head of Product, PlayStation Vue writes for PlayStation Blog:

 Today, we’re launching a new multi-view feature for PlayStation Vue that allows you to watch up to three live channels — all on one screen. With March Madness starting next week, this will be a great way to catch several live games at once from TNT, TBS, TruTV and CBS.* You can also use this feature for any live TV channel available on Vue, such as watching a mix of live news programs or live events at once.

Multi-view will be available on PS4 starting today. The new feature gives you the option to watch and listen to a main TV channel and view up to two additional channels at the same time. Keep an eye on all the action and enjoy mixing and matching your favorite channels. 

Luckily using it is also a breeze, something that wasn’t alway the case in the old days of TVs when having PiP was a big deal.

 To use this feature, just press and hold X on any live TV program from the Guide or Live TV row of the home screen to open up the selection screen for multi-view. A menu will pop up to give you an option of using either two or three multi-view screens. You can select any other live programing from the Live TV strand and start viewing multiple programs at once. The main screen in multi-view will contain audio of the programming.

Press X to start any program. Press and hold X on any live program to start a multi-screen viewing experience.

If you want to switch programs within the multi-view screen, press Square on your DualShock 4. To move a program to the main screen, just highlight the smaller screen and press Square. 

According to Dan, this feature is only available on PS4 at the moment with no announcement regarding its availability on iOS or Android. I for one wouldn’t be shocked if this either never arrived or came at a much later time period to mobile, seeing the extra power it can take to handle multiple streams. On mobile, that could murder your battery life.

Last I’d read, PlayStation Vue only commanded 100k followers which is a drop in the bucket compared to streaming services like Netflix and even traditional cable operators in the US and it’s a shame because the service is frankly quite fantastic. Here’s hoping that Sony does a better job at attracting people to it in 2017. Have you thought about trying PS Vue?