Sony has not explained why they made the change, but it is likely an effort to keep costs down. Some time ago Sony dropped the PlayStation Vue free trial from 7 days down to 5. That helped Sony keep the cost of free trials down.
With HBO and other premium channels being a part of the Ultra plans, it is a far more expensive package for Sony to offer a free trial on.
This is likely also an effort to fight a growing trend of trial hopping, the subscriber practice of jumping from service to service trying out free trials without any plans to pay for it. This forces services like PlayStation Vue to pay content providers for the usage and not receive anything in return.
The practice of trial hopping has become a growing concern for the industry as a whole. Several services have started to ask for phone numbers or other information to fight it.
Please follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more news, tips, and reviews.
Need cord cutting tech support? Join our Cord Cutting Tech Support Facebook Group for help.