According to Wall Street Journal, Sony is planning a new
iTunes killer, a video download service that will allow PSP and PS3 users to
download movies and TV shows.
“People familiar with the situation say Mr. Stringer is
planning to use Sony's technology-packed PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable
videogame machines, along with its Bravia high-definition televisions, to
develop products and services to let users download television shows and
movies, similar to the way they download music and videos using Apple's iTunes
store and iPods.” said Wall Street Journal.
But also WSJ noted that a Sony spokesman declined to comment
on the company's strategy.
In fact Sony is aiming for a video download service for a
long a time. In 2005 speaking at the Digital Hollywood conference Michael
Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures said that Sony is planning an
“iTunes” for movies. "We want to set business models, pricing models,
distribution models like (Apple Computer CEO Steve) Jobs did for music, but for
the film industry," said Arrieta quoted by CNET.com.
Three weeks later, Steve Banfield, senior vice president at
Sony Connect, said for SiliconValleyWatcher.com
that the company it had no plans to produce an online movie download store
modeled along the lines of Apple Computer's iTunes.
But that was two years ago, and last week, at IFA 2007 Sony
announced it’s pulling the plug of its Connect store, because the ATRAC format
failed to become an alternative to MP3 and other formats.
Of course, two years ago PlayStation 3 was just a concept,
but after the launch of its gaming platform Sony’s officials hinted again about
the introduction of video downloads, especially since in November 2006
Microsoft had introduced Xbox Live Video Marketplace, a service which delivers
to gamers in the U.S. TV shows for download to own and movies for download to
rent from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System,
Inc. (TBS, Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros.
In an interview given in February this year to the gaming
site 1UP.com, Phil
Harrison, President, Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment,
acknowledged that it’s possible that
soon enough PS3’s users will be able to download movies and TV shows from
PlayStation Network.
“I think it's incredibly important that we establish what
PlayStation 3 stands for. And I think PlayStation 3 needs to stand for gaming
and digital entertainment in the living room pushing the envelope of high
definition, pushing the envelope of broadband, and of course that includes more
than just games. We don't have the announcements that you're probably looking
for today, but it is digital data. We have a hard drive, we have a commerce
engine, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on
the network very shortly” he said during the interview.
As you can see there are some strong clues that Sony is
preparing something. In fact the Japanese company is not the only one that is
discontented by the Apple’s domination in the nascent video download market.
Last week, shortly after it has announced its involvement in
Hulu.com (another video download initiative) NBC said that the company is
negotiating with Apple the future of their contract regarding the NBC’s content
sold on iTunes. Although NBC was one of its main content providers, Apple
issued a press statement saying that they declined to pay more than double the
wholesale price for each NBC TV episode, which would have resulted in the
retail price to consumers increasing to $4.99 per episode from the current
$1.99. In response, NBC stated that the negotiations issues weren’t price
related.
But this episode is relevant for the Apple’s tense relations
with the TV and movies content providers, which are seeking new alternatives to
distribute their content.
The launch of its own video download service is a logical
move for Sony, especially, as Wall Street Journal noted, because it may boost
the sales of its gaming consoles, which are lagging far behind its competitors.
Also, last week, Sony introduced its first Wakman players
with video capabilities. The new NWZ-A810 and NWZ-S610 series of Walkman have a
320x240 large Quarter Video Graphics Array (QVGA) LCD screen that displays
video at 30 frames per second.
Sony said that the battery life allows up to eight hours of
video playback for the NWZ-A810 series and nine-and-a-half hours for the
NWZ-S610 series and the video formats supported AVC (H.264/AVC) Baseline
Profile and MPEG-4 video codecs.
The prices of the players in NWZ-A810 series range from $140
(2 GB) to $230 (8GB), while the models in NWZ-S610 series will be sold for $120
(2 GB) to $210 (8GB).
Also in July Sony reduced the price of its PS3 gaming
console, a move that boosted August’s sales. At E3 Expo Sony announced the
September launch of the new version of PSP, dubbed Slim and Lite.
According to the estimates, Sony has sold so far 22.92
milion PSPs and 4.39 million PS3s, which means that there are a lot of
potential clients for a video download service compatible with these devices.
Still, it remains to be seen it Sony will unveil a new video
download service or just a new feature for its PlayStation Network.
