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

Related articles:
Sony Launching PS3 Online Video Service
Sony beats Microsoft in IPTV race