CSN NW Restricted on Playstation Vue Web

Sony announced on Thursday its Playstation Vue streaming tv service would be available on both PC and Mac platforms, but CSN Northwest’s live programming appears to be “web restricted.”

Because CSN Northwest is now available on Vue — which was previously only accessible via Roku and Amazon FireTV devices, Google Chromecast and PS3 and PS4 consoles — this appeared to be good news for Blazers fans. Those without Comcast subscriptions who wanted legal viewing options for televised Trail Blazers games in the Portland area ostensibly would have had the option to stream games on PC and Mac for the first time:

The “web restricted” status of CSN NW, however, means Blazers fans in the Portland area still don’t currently have a legal in-browser streaming option.

CSN Northwest is available on Vue’s middle-tier “Core” account option, which costs users $34.99 for a monthly subscription. When we logged into Playstation Vue from the 97008 area code via desktop on Thursday night, though, all channels appeared to be available for live streaming, except CSN Northwest:

When CSN Northwest was accessed via Playstation Vue’s “Live TV” feature, the channel displayed a splash advertisement for its native Talkin’ Beavers programming with a “web restricted” banner in the corner of the live web player:

CSN Northwest is still available locally for streaming on Vue through Roku, FireTV, Chromecast, PS3 and PS4.

The Trail Blazers and Comcast have previously had arrangements to stream games for fans in Oregon and Washington without access to Comcast cable services, but Playstation Vue would have been the first legal streaming option on PC and Mac devices for fans in areas where Comcast is currently available.

Sony, Comcast and the Trail Blazers have yet to publicly address CSN Northwest’s future availability on the web version of Playstation Vue.

-- Chris Lucia | blazersedgepodcast@gmail.com | @ChrisLuciaPDX