Sony's Direct-to-Home "Hancock" Experiment

Doug Mohney — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:50:57 -0400

Sony is going to stream its "Hancock" movie directly to buyers of its Bravia TV sets through the Internet.

Speaking at a press dinner in San Francisco, Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said Hancock would be Sony's first trial with streaming a movie directly to its TVs. Customers also need a $299 wireless internet video link device to attach to the TV and they will also have to pay some to-be-determined fee to watch the stream. Since broadband speeds aren't up to snuff, the movie will come across the wires in standard definition.

While it doesn't sound like a great deal, owners will get the streamed version ahead of the DVD release and a copy of the DVD will be sent along as a part of the package price.

By and large, Movie critics didn't like "Hancock" and middlemen aren't likely to be happy with Sony trying to bypass them from potential DVD and/or online sales. Cable companies and video-on-demand shops, plus the local Big Boxes will likely have something to say about this in the future. There's also some out loud discussions that Sony still hasn't learned its lessons about open standards since not everyone is buying high-end Sony TVs and the company is pushing a proprietary standard for short range high-speed data transmission.

For more:
- The Financial Times reports on Sony's Direct-to-home experiment

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SPOTLIGHT: Sony Launching PS3 Online Video Service

Doug Mohney — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:37:21 -0400

Sony Corp. is lining up movie and TV studios to supply shows for its PlayStation 3 online video service to be launched this summer. This would be the third time for Sony to try an online video venture. Strike one was Movielink, which ended up sold last year to Blockbuster. SonyConnect, strike two, was shut down in March.

There are over 4 million PlayStation 3 consoles in the U.S. and 9 million worldwide and analysts credit the PS3 as the "decisive edge" in the battle to establish Sony's Blu-ray disk format as the HD playback standard in the home. The new service would position Sony to compete with a growing number of Internet-connected devices and services that deliver video to the TV, including arch-rival Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. Sony plans to embrace open standards that would make its offering compatible with a range of computers and hand-held devices, including its PlayStation Portable.

Microsoft's Xbox Live, with over 10 million subscribers, is currently tagged as Sony's biggest competitor. Subscribers have access to more than 4,800 hours of video, including 350 movies and more than 5,000 episodes of TV shows for sale. Parks Associates projects Internet video will reap about $6.4 billion in revenues from advertising, as well as paid downloads or rentals.

For more:
- Read the LA Times Sony PS3 Online Video Story

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Sony's Direct-to-Home "Hancock" Experiment

SPOTLIGHT: Sony Launching PS3 Online Video Service