We’re not quite sure who rained on who’s parade this week as Sony announced not one, but two TV and film entertainment services for the PS3, one in the US and another in the UK, and Microsoft answered with a streaming deal for Xbox 360 network members alongside Netflix, to make 10,000 pieces of video available. Both deals were announced at this week’s E3 gaming conference in the US.
On balance we think that the Sony move is the stronger, launching a fully DRMed product, using its own Marlin DRM from a jointly owned subsidiary with Philips, called Intertrust.
Content has been signed from at least seven studios including Sony Pictures, Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner Brothers, Disney offering movies, TV programs for rent and purchase at $2.99 to $5.99 for film rental with TV show rentals at $1.99 an episode and $9.99 to $14.99 for film purchases. Now where have we heard that pricing before? Well it seems to be a combination of iTunes and the classic online movie rentals of Movielink. For now, the service only has 300 full length movies and 1,200 TV episodes, but now that it has finally come to market with a service Sony can gradually flood at least 8,000 movies onto the service which it owns rights to itself, though we suspect that Sony will continue to add films slowly, going after recent blockbusters rather than back catalogue. Disney says that it will only offer movies for rent.
Jack Tretton, president and CEO, Sony Computer Entertainment America, said ‘The collaboration of Sony’s film, TV and entertainment business units, coupled with our hardware and content offerings, provide consumers with entertainment experiences unlike any on the market.”
Given that in the past the various parts of Sony could barely manage to talk to one another, he’s right that this is an achievement, and perhaps suggests a new corporate culture of co-operation within Sony, sponsored by new CEO Howard Stringer.
The use of the Marlin DRM technology, which automatically supports user domains, clusters of registered hardware, which can swap content freely, will mean that a PS3 film store can be built up, and the films can go on the road through the PSP, something that’s been possible for years, but which virtually no service has yet managed. It would be nice if it worked with phones too.
Sony also said this week that it would double the storage space on the $399 version of the PS3 to 80 GBs, with no price increase. Meanwhile Microsoft took $50 from the price of its basic 20GB Xbox 360 console now down to $299, and unveiled plans for a new 60GB model in August which will retail for $349.
The Microsoft Netflix deal, on the surface looked good, but there appears to be no money changing hands. Quite simply the streaming service that Netflix has previously talked about can be streamed to a TV using the Xbox extender technology. Microsoft is using it to promote Gold membership of its Live network while Netflix is doing the same for membership of its online DVD rental service. If you happen to belong to both, the service is free. However there is an awful lot of video on that service, some 10,000 movies and TV episodes – with no PC required for viewing, just an Xbox.
It is our understanding that these are streamed over the internet and that there is no facility for storing the films once they have been played, nor taking them on the road with a portable device, though some kind of video Zune may emerge.
Finally Sony launched a service in the UK, due to go live in other European countries soon, called Go!View whereby BSkyB content can be captured on a PC over a broadband download, and transferred to a PSP, for viewing on the go. BSkyB is the most popular pay TV service in the UK. This is a paid monthly subscription stating as low as $10 a month. Individual TV series episodes can also be purchased for about double what they cost in the US.