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Sony ramps up PlayStation 3 video content

Gamers will be able to download movies to rent or buy directly from their PlayStation 3 within the next few months, Sony Computer Entertainment announced today.

Ty Pendlebury Editor
Ty Pendlebury is a journalism graduate of RMIT Melbourne, and has worked at CNET since 2006. He lives in New York City where he writes about streaming and home audio.
Expertise Ty has worked for radio, print, and online publications, and has been writing about home entertainment since 2004. He majored in Cinema Studies when studying at RMIT. He is an avid record collector and streaming music enthusiast. Credentials
  • Ty was nominated for Best New Journalist at the Australian IT Journalism awards, but he has only ever won one thing. As a youth, he was awarded a free session for the photography studio at a local supermarket.
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Ty Pendlebury
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Gamers will be able to download movies to rent or buy directly from their PlayStation 3 within the next few months, Sony Computer Entertainment announced at the launch of its first television offering in Sydney today.

PlayStation
PlayTV and ABC iView will now become pieces of the PlayStation puzzle. (Credit: Ty Pendlebury)

Michael Ephraim, managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia, today officially launched ABC iView downloadable content via the console and the brand new PlayTV recorder.

Ephraim also announced that the 250GB PlayStation will be bundled indefinitely with the dual-tuner PlayStation 3 for AU$599 from 26 November.

Sony Computer Entertainment is currently running a direct link to ABC's iView service, which allows PS3 users to download ABC shows directly from the net. The service is a part of an extended IPTV trial, Ephraim said, and new services would be launched by the trial's end in March 2010.

"Next year, we will deliver video-on-demand services with new releases and back catalogue titles for PlayStation 3 and PSP," he said.

The new services fit within the company's "vision for PS3 [that] has always been about more than 'just gaming'," said Ephraim

Arul Baskaran, ABC's head of multi-platform production said the new service will continue to be monitored and tweaked, including adding compatibility with Sony Blu-ray remotes.

"It's just the start of the trial. We'll make improvements to the service over the next few months," Baskaran said. "Today, IPTV moves from PCs to where it belongs: on your television."

Ephraim said the company had decided to delay the launch of PlayTV till now because it was initially only a standard-definition unit.

The PlayTV unit is Freeview compatible and Freeview head Robyn Parkes announced at the media briefing that the Freeview EPG will be released in 2010.