Imagine the following scenario: you browse the digital video store of a company, find a great movie or TV show, hit the buy button, only to find out later that the company that sold you the digital item has removed it from your library again. Money gone, movie gone, and seemingly no option to do anything about it.
This scenario is not one of those extreme unlikely events that never happens. Sony started to remove StudioCanal movies from its PlayStation Store some time ago. The company stopped the integrated movie store back in 2021 and has been at work since to remove content from user libraries.
This September, it is hitting British PlayStation users who bought Studio Canal titles. Sony lists hundreds of movies on a support page.
The reason? Sony says that “content licensing agreements” are to blame. The effect is simple: Starting September 1, 2026, customers will no longer be able to access “previously purchased content from Studio Canal” as it will be removed from the video library of the PlayStation system.
Sony is not the only major company that pulled content that customers purchased digitally before. Google, for instance, closed its Stadia cloud gaming service back in 2023 and cut access to purchased games. Google did refund software and hardware purchases though.
Microsoft shut down its ebooks store in 2019 and that also meant that customers could no longer access ebooks they bought in the store. Microsoft did issue full refunds as well.
The main takeaway is this: while companies use “buy” buttons when it comes to digital media, customers purchase licenses only. The license gives them the right to play, read or stream the content, but only as long as the license is not revoked. Revoking is rare, but it can happen at any time.