Rumor: Sony planning new movie and music rival to iTunes

Sony showed off Qriocity, a service that would allow users to download movies at CES early this year, but made no promises about when it might launch, although there were rumors it would hit the market in February.

Well, now Sony is rumored to be announcing a new music and video download service that would be available across all of the company's connected devices, starting with the PlayStation game console. Launch date? Sometime next year, reports the Financial Times.

The announcement is expected at the IFA tech show in Berlin sometime today (likely before Apple splashes its latest news this afternoon).

The new service won't be Sony's first trip around the block. Its Connect music service failed to gain significant traction in the U.S. or Europe and was bagged in 2007. It has tens of millions of PlayStation consoles connected to the Internet, allowing them to access some content. A new Sony-operated service would not only challenge iTunes music download service, but also put it in a head-to-head battle with Netflix, Apple, Google, Best Buy and several other retailers looking to grab a piece of the video-on-demand marketplace.

The company said it expects 90 percent of all Sony devices to be capable of connecting to the Internet and each other by 2011.

For more:
- see this FT article

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