Purchased Discovery Shows From PlayStation Store? They’re Getting Removed

PlayStation has recently posted a legal update notice that as of 31 December 2023, due to their content licensing arrangements with content providers, users won’t be able to watch any of their previously purchased Discovery content and the content will be removed from the video library.

Source: PlayStation

This is followed by the ‘Discovery Entitlements Affected Titles’ list, which includes American Chopper, Cake Boss, Curiosity, Deadliest Catch, FBI: Criminal Pursuit, Gold Rush, Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, How The Universe Works, Man vs. Wild, My Strange Addiction, MythBusters, Say Yes to the Dress and many more.

Not much is explained about the aforementioned content licensing arrangements so many are left speculating.

Chances are there could be a revenue-related difference between Sony and Warner Bros Discovery that caused this licensing change. This article by Arstechnica goes into detail about Warner Bros. Discovery and its plan for Discovery+ which may have impacted this decision.

Users on Reddit shared that they were under the impression that since they owned it, they would never lose it and wondered if there was any way to save this content.

To this, user Tin_Cascade replied:

[bs-quote quote=”Unfortunately, no. You’re buying a license to use that content and that relies upon it being honored forever: i.e. the servers continue to operate, etc. We’re still ridiculously early in the world of sorting out digital content rights.” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]

Here’s a reply by user LordTism on a different thread:

[bs-quote quote=”You didnt buy anything, you purchased a license. A license which if you read the terms and conditions, Sony has the right to revoke at any time, without reason. We tried to warn the digital only brigade of the future they were settings themselves up for.” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]

Kotaku further clarifies with this – “Now, essentially anything you buy on PSN, whether a PS5 blockbuster or, uh, Police Women of Cincinnati, is essentially just on indefinite loan until such time as the PlayStation servers die or the original copyright owner decides to pull the content.”

Will there be Refunds?

There is no mention of refunds in the emails sent out to users nor the official post made by PlayStation.

Redditors mention that there may be something related to it in the terms and conditions/agreements that we end up agreeing to, without really reading through it all.

Source: PSN Terms

For example, if you go through the PSN terms of service, there’s a section called Content License and Restrictions, which says:

[bs-quote quote=”10.2. Except as stated in this Agreement, all Content provided through PSN is licensed on a non-exclusive and revocable basis to you for your personal, private, non-transferable, non-commercial, limited use on a limited number of PlayStation Devices or other devices in the country in which your Account is registered.” style=”default” align=”center” color=”” author_name=”” author_job=”” author_avatar=”” author_link=””][/bs-quote]