Sony CEO Howard Stringer recently revealed the company’s intentions to launch a revolutionary new television before Apple, and according to The Wall Street Journal, it will be a web-based alternative to the traditional set that will allow users to avoid the cable companies.
Sony is proposing to beam the channels over Internet connections to Sony-made devices, including PlayStation gaming consoles, TV sets and Blu-ray players, the people said. Sony has sold about 18.1 million PlayStation 3 consoles in the U.S. alone, according to NPD Group Inc., and many homes have other Internet-connected Sony devices.
Sony is reportedly approaching a number of content providers hoping to seal deals for its new service, including Comcast, Discovery, NBC Universal, and News Corp. However, it may not be so easy to get them all on board:
One stumbling block could be Sony’s desire to license a smaller bundle of channels than existing cable operators offer to undercut the incumbents on price and flexibility, according to people familiar with the matter. That could be a nonstarter for media companies, which would prefer not to undercut their biggest customers.
Apple learned this wasn’t an easy feat several years ago, when the Cupertino company attempted to create a “best of TV” package for iTunes users that would only feature the most popular shows. As you’ll know if you’re a regular iTunes store shopper, that package never arrived.
As Sony’s CEO revealed, its new TV was built specifically to compete with a rumored Apple television, expected to launch in 2013, featuring Siri integration. Stringer also stated his desire to have Sony’s product on the market long before Apple’s.
[via MacRumors]
Killian Bell is a freelance writer based in the U.K. He has an interest in all things tech and also covers Android over at CultofAndroid.com. You can follow him on Twitter via @killianbell.
14 responses to “Sony’s Revolutionary New TV Could Used Web-Based Services To Cut Out Cable Providers”
Biggest problem with a new model like this? Bandwidth, or should I say throttling…especially with broadband providers like Comcast and Time-Warner controlling the pipes. This comes in, they’ll throttle you to make it a poor experience or tier your access so you’re paying them enough to offset the loss of you as a TV customer. This is far from an easy thing to do.
All I know that if there is “No HBO, it is a No Go” in my house. I think I would be divorced if I cut my wife off from ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘True Blood’. Using Torrents is not an option either.
I have Time Warner Cable for internet and they have never throttled me. Our television provider is DirecTV and we are heavy users of the their CinemaPlus feature which downloads every high definition movie through the Internet. We also have Netflix and Hulu accounts and purchase a fair bit of content from iTunes and Amazon. My connection stays at 30 Mbps down / 5 Mbps Up all month long and we used about 250 GB of bandwidth last month.
“New TV Could USED Web-based Services”? Don’t you guys bother to double-check even your headlines before posting? Yesterday we had “Standford”. Now this. Really is contemptuous of your visitors.
You are right on the money. Comcast has a 250GB month limit. And it is easy to cross with online backups, multiple iphones, ipads, apple tvs, computers all performing updates, and backups online plus capable of streaming netflix (we only stream on the highest quality since the lower quality looks like crap).
Agreed, but remember these are rants on a blog, not to be confused with big media journalism. However, even the NY Times has been screwing up lately with cutbacks of proof readers.
No company is going to eliminate cable. The vast majority of broadband uses cable services to provide content. Unless there is more players (satellite, Broadband Over Powerline) that provides broadband services, cable will always be number one. Cable companies always charges you enough for their services to help pay for television service that you don’t use, its just good business. After all, there is significant costs to maintaining a cable system and if companies like Sony think they can eliminate cable, they are kidding themselves. They can only eliminate part of cable services since they can’t eliminate the medium that allows them to provide their own services.