Sony has revealed that the Netflix app will no longer work on its smart TVs and Blu-ray players that were sold between 2011 and 2013. The Japanese company blamed the “technical limitations” of those devices, but mentioned that the news first came from Netflix, which suggests that the streaming giant is no longer supporting these older devices.
In an announcement on Sony’s support pages, the company said Netflix will soon end support for its Sony Bravia HX, EX and W-series TVs, as well as 35 different Blu-ray player models. The full list of affected devices was published by FlatPanels HD, so head on over there to check, if you’re worried it might impact one you own.
The news follows an October announcement that Netflix is eliminating support for a range of older devices sold by companies including Samsung, Panasonic and Hitachi, as well as the Sony PlayStation Vita and PlayStation TV devices. Usually, when companies like Netflix end support for their applications, it’s because they have added new capabilities that require more modern hardware to work properly. If this hardware is unavailable on older devices, most companies opt to end support rather than push out a buggy app to users. Netflix doesn’t do this so often, with the last such purge occurring in 2019.
Sony didn’t say exactly when support for the Netflix app would end on the above-mentioned devices, but it believes it will happen sometime around the end of February 2024.
For those who want to continue watching Netflix, there only option is to make an investment of some kind. They can either bite the bullet and splurge on a new TV – which may not be a bad idea seeing as display technology has improved vastly over the last decade – or they can alternatively buy a streaming stick or set-top box that has the Netflix app installed. Simply plug the streaming device into the TV and the app should be there, pre-installed. Some of the best streaming devices include the Apple TV 4K, Roku’s streaming sticks, and the Chromecast with Google TV.
