Next month, Sony will remove several features from select recent Bravia smart TVs, a change that will impact users who depend on an antenna or a set-top box.
Beginning in “late May 2026,” people using an antenna with the impacted TV models will encounter a pared-down TV guide, according to a support page highlighted by Cord Cutters News. The support page warns that “program information may not appear depending on the channel,” and that “only programs from recently watched channels may be shown” for channels received via an antenna.
Channel logos and thumbnail images will also be removed from program descriptions for TV channels delivered over an antenna.
Sony is removing the dedicated menu for set-top box users and replacing it with a “control menu.” That should produce a simpler, less cluttered menu, but it is expected to reduce available functionality for set-top box users.
Additionally, affected TVs will stop showing thumbnail images in the TV menu. That means the TV guide built into the Google TV operating system (OS)—which aggregates content accessible via antennas, free ad-supported streaming television (FAST) channels, and certain other live streaming services—will no longer include preview images that help identify shows and movies.
Sony says the following TV models are impacted:
- 2025 models: Bravia 8 II (XR80M2), Bravia 5 (XR50)
- 2024 models: Bravia 9 (XR90), Bravia 8 (XR80), Bravia 7 (XR70)
- 2023 models: Bravia A95L series
Sony’s support page states: “We appreciate your understanding and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Functionality reduced
Sony did not explain the rationale for removing these features. Ars Technica reached out but had not received a response before publication. The article will be updated if a reply is provided.
It’s possible Sony is reallocating development resources toward more widely used features. Use of antennas and set-top boxes has largely declined in favor of on-demand streaming, though both still have committed users. In a 2025 survey of 2,200 US adults by Horowitz Research, 19 percent reported using an antenna. And in a 2024 Hub Entertainment Research survey of 1,600 US broadband-connected TV viewers aged 16 to 74, 26 percent said a set-top box is their “default device for watching TV.”
