Sony claim that they have delivered over 500 million downloads of content over their Sony PlayStation Network however they are refusing to break down the dowloads to individual devices such as the Playstation3 Vs their PSP.
Sony Australia and Sony Computer Entertainment are currently planning to expand the Sony download network in Australia with both organisations holding talks with content providers. At one stage Sony held talks with Foxtel according to insiders at the pay TV network.
According to Hollywood magazine, Variety, the Sony figure covers purchases and rentals of movies, TV shows and original programming.
According to the New York Times, digital downloads have been a bit of a conundrum for the Hollywood studios. They know distribution is moving in that direction, but revenues from downloads have been tiny and studios have to manage any cannibalisation of lucrative DVD sales. Though it looks like we may be turning a corner.
The Digital Entertainment Group reported that digital distribution was up 21 percent in the first half of this year, generating $968 million, compared with $407 million in Blu-ray sales.
Game consoles are the most popular device for digital delivery of web-based video to TV sets, according to recent research from In-Stat, a trend that will continue through 2013. By that time, In-Stat predicts that the revenues generated by web-to-TV video services will hit $2.9 billion.
In Australia, Sony is going to have to compete with the likes of TiVo and services from the likes of IceTV as well as several new IP content providers. Also cranking up their download network is Google with the YouTube network. Both Panasonic and Samsung are now providing consumers with access to YouTube content along with Topfield via their new media centre offering.
Also set to compete for consumer attention is Microsoft, who is set to roll out a bunch of new video features to its Xbox LIVE service, some of which will be available in preview starting this Monday in the USA.
Australians will not have access to the service.
