Hancock, the intended blockbuster movie for the July 4 weekend, opened today to mixed reviews from the critics.

Just as well then that its maker Sony is looking for an impact in US homes as well as at the box office.

Stan Glasgow, Sony Electronics US president, told us at a press dinner in San Francisco last night that Hancock would be Sony’s first experiment with streaming a movie into the homes of buyers of its Bravia TV sets.

They would need to have purchased a $299 Internet Video Link accessory to attach to the TV and they will also have to pay a fee, yet to be determined, to watch the stream. Their viewing experience will be in standard definition as broadband speeds were not up to high-definition standards, said Mr Glasgow.

So the deal has about the same lukewarm attraction as the movie, except for the benefit of getting this streamed version ahead of the DVD release and a copy of the subsequent DVD being included in the price.

Sony says this is an industry first - getting a movie directly to the consumer from the content provider - but it also raises questions about Sony’s relationship with the middle man it threatens to cut out.

Sir Howard Stringer, chief executive, has been encouraging joined-up thinking by the different divisions of Sony. This means coming up with synergies that promote products, from a Sony Pictures movie encouraging users to buy a Blu-ray player and high-definition TV or buying a games console to watch it on the PlayStation Network.

As well as this marketing network, Sony has a hardware target of having 90 per cent of its consumer electronics products featuring wired or wireless network connectivity by 2010, including Blu-ray players, cameras and its Reader digital book.

But will these work best with other Sony equipment using Sony standards or is the company fully embracing common industry standards?

Sony has put forward TransferJet for example, to compete with the Ultra Wide Band standard for short-range transmission of data. But Mr Glasgow insisted Sony’s goal in the future was to work on more open standards.

It also has to work with the industry on sharing access to content. When I asked about the eventual integration of the Internet Video Link into the TV, Mr Glasgow referred to the deal struck with US cable operators in May.
All parties agreed to adopt Java-based tru2way as the national interactive “plug and play” standard that would enable interactive features such as video on demand.

He said he expected both the Video Link accessory and cable boxes in future to be replaced by chips inside the TV.

This would mean content direct from Sony being offered alongside the video-on-demand services of the cable operators in a shared interface.

“The consumers deserve to make the choice of what content they want to watch, it shouldn’t be dictated by the cable companies,” said Mr Glasgow.

“Part of the agreement we have with them is we’re able to integrate on that [interface] front page to allow consumers to make those choices. That was a very critical part of the agreement.”

This sounds like another industry first - competing on-demand services on the same screen as cable technologies merge with internet-protocol streaming. In theory, the consumer could choose to watch Hancock delivered by Sony or by the cable operator, based on whoever offers the cheaper price.

Of course, Sony Pictures may not make its movies available to cable operators for video-on-demand in order to help its streaming service. That would be a real test of revenue models and the extent Sir Howard expects his divisions to help one another.

July 2, 2008 4:41pm in Digital media, Hardware | Comment