PSN video delivery service with 8 studios to launch tonight

by Alan Tsang on Jul 15th 2008 3:40PM

PSN video delivery service will launch tonight. Major studio support including Sony, Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, Funimation. It will offer both SD and HD content. TV shows start at $1.99 per episode, movie rentals are $2.99-$5.99 per rental and $9.99-$14.99 for purchases. Not only can you play the content on the PS3, you can play it on PSP. It can be placed on multiple devices at the same time.

Tags: e308, movie-downloads, PSN-store, sony, video-downloads

Reader Comments (90)

HD content FTW. And no Netflix account. Yes!!!

Yeah except if you already HAVE a netflix account, that content is delivered to (360) users free of charge, and their library is absolutely enormous.

This, while a nice option, pales imo to the netflix announcement by MS yesterday.

Let's just hope they can offer movies worth watching.....

Can you play HD over RGB? Also, how long are rentals?

Cool thing is it will be ready tonight!

Too bad you have to have a XBL Live Gold & Netflix account to have access.....not cheap....

/\ last post was at reson8er

How much does a Gold & Netflix account cost? How much does this service cost PS3 owners?

It would have been nice if, for example, MS ended up with Blockbuster, and Sony partnered with Netflix. /sigh

@Devin

Oh really? I didn't realize it was only for gold subscription's lol, never mind then, this is better.

Are you seriouse? Netflix you must pay! Xbox live you pay! this is more then your paying for the PSN.... people need to think outside the box.... HELLO!

Um.. Has no one used Netflix before?.. Netflix has over 10,000 movies and TV shows that they let you keep as long as you want with no additional fees. Not to mention XBL already has a HD video downloader.. I'm not saying this is bad.. in fact, it's good that the PS3 finally HAS this function.. but in no way are you able to compare it to Netflix.. that's just being biased.

Arnon, you can get Netflix on any PC! Harddrives for PCs are like $99 for 500gig these days. Every PC can be connected to your TV.

Not sure owner's of the 360 Arcade version will be happy. Heck, even people with 20gig harddrives. Sure, they could buy a $200 120gig harddrive.

I guess Microsoft will have to come up with a larger version soon. The $400 320gig harddrive?

this isnt that cool. sweet jesus sony, where are the fuckin cool announcements??

I am sure this is usa only.

Awesome! cant wait to enjoy movies and tv shows

2 words "Holy" & "$#^T" thats just a slap in the face to M$

Befor eyesterday i would have said yes this would have been a slap in the face.But with the deal ms has with netflix that is a better deal for now.

yeah but think about it we dont have to wait until fall to get it WE GET IT TONIGHT!!!!! and with HD content

xbox already has HD content aartard... there will be much more in the fall - how long did you have to wait for this paltry 80 movies/shows?

I wonder if Sony will let the 360 have Sony Pictures Movies (and they own Colombia pictures too). The price is Awesome too , I could pay 15 dollars and have it on my PS3 and PSP (you know , if I get a PSP , waiting for christmas :p) or I could pay 20+ dollars for the movie on disc , or go to the movies and pay 15 dollars to see it once (I just can't watch a movie there without pop and popcorn) This service will go nicely with my 42 inch 1080p HDTV.

Nice work Sony , and releasing it the day that it's announced (before there were only rumors I think ) keep up the good work .

GDI I hate Joystiqus comment system.

i agree.. they really need to improve this somehow...

@Devin

Well, being is a PSN Download service, it probably is free of charge, like all of PSN's services, according to what was said, we would only have to pay for the actual rental/purchase.

So in order for Netflix to work on 360, you would first need 1) Netflix subscription which varies, and 2) Live Gold subscription which is $50 bucks. So thats Netflix x amount + $50 bucks more than PSN :)

On top of that, Sony, Fox, MGM, Lions Gate, Warner, Disney, Paramount, Turner, Funimation. have all decided to support it, now these companies can not only make money on DvD AND Blu Ray sales, now they can make money on the PSN Video Download service, so im sure the library will expand pretty quickly :)

Also, the cool thing about PSN, is if you have a psp, you can take your movies on the go :) i likes this a lot.

Don't get me wrong i am not bashing wrong i think its great.But i think some of your getting a bit confued.

Ms
$100 per year all you can download more or less.

Sony
$7.00 per rental.

Well lets assume that technically the bare minimum netflix subscription you are allowed to view d/l are is their 3 at a time plan, which is $17.99 per month + tax. Lets say 18.50 to round off.

(18.50 x 12) + 50.00 = $272.00 per year.

Now, if you ALREADY subscribe to Netflix, its still costs you 50.00 per year for LIVE.

If you don't subscribe to netflix, the winner is PSN by a mile.

Currently the Metflix system only includes content on the watch it now streaming service. Which is hardly anything. Obviously it will grow over time, and current its only "almost dvd" quality. Will have to see how good the HD content with Sony is.

This is a great announcement, but I'm still disappointed to some extent.

1) I already have a Netflix account. That means if I had a 360 I could watch all those movies in my living room without having to pay more than I do already. It's a whole lot of video on demand, you could watch it 24/7 if you wanted, without the need to pay piece by piece.

2) Netflix is streaming, so you don't have to open up gobs of HD space. Yes, I know the PS3 HD is easily upgradeable, but that upgrade would be one less thing to do and one less expense if we had streaming media.

3) I watch TV all the time on the PC. I watch every episode of Lost for free in HD whenever I want, all perfectly legally direct from ABC. I do have to endure commercials, but I don't have to endure $2.00 per episode.

If I had chosen to do so, I could have gotten the episodes off of iTunes for $2.00 each without commercials. The thing is, it's a choice. On the PS3 I won't have that choice.

Totally freaking awesome. I now have a reason to use my PSP.

Notice also that it the post said "other devices" as well. So iPod owners and the like should be able to use the videos? If so, then that will be really cool. Since I'm not a 360 owner, does the 360 give the ability to transfer movies over to an iPod or external player device? If not, then Sony wins here.

Meh, Sony needs to do something ridiculously unexpected like buy off exclusives. *laugh*

The most f-d up thing about this generation's video game market IMO is that MS has the ability to convince developers into going multiplat away from their original Sony-exclusive stance. Sony on the other hand has been getting MS games that have long been played on the 360 months before (e.g. Lost Planet, Bioshock, Oblivion to name a few). Why the heck would a PS360 owner like me wanna purchase a game on the PS3 if I played it months ago on my 360? =P Well besides additional content of course (Eternal Sonata).

Damn offtopic. Yea i'm liking this PSN video service, big plus for me is it goes up TONIGHT + $14.99 for video purchases. I like the video service that MS has too, but the hd space is lacking and i'm not willing to put down $100-200 for "just a little more" space. I use my PS3 more for its media capabilities and have over 130 some gigs of videos on it.

because the ps3 is awesome, and the xbox, is well... not

A big contributing factor is HD, and the quality of the HD. Who cares if Nexflix is on 360 if it's standard def or a (poorly) upsampled 720 with a substandard WMV codec.

If Sony can push high-bitrate 702 or 1080 content as MP4, it will be worth it, big time.

Plus, Sony's links to the movie studios also make this service very interesting. If they can get HD "exclusives" and make other services wait for better quality content, they could really take off.

With this move, Sony also positions themselves as a very good competitor to Apple and their Apple TV.

This is something we have been waiting for. Not having to hear it is coming and getting it tonight is a MAJOR plus. This is only really worth it if the downloads are new releases. Otherwise, what's the use. I have a DVDxpress.net kiosk that I get New Releases from at my local Food World. You can reserve online and pick up within 8hours. Price is $.99 per rental. The only drawback is they don't have HD yet. So, if PSN can get New Releases then that will be the seller.

Price is $0.99 per rental? What are you talking about? It says right in the post that you're commenting on that rentals cost $2.99-$5.99. I wish it could be $0.99, but I just don't see it happening.

unless im mistaken linesbegintoblur he was talking about were he usually gets rentals from, not this new playstation feature.

I was talking about the rental fees from the DVDxpress kiosk. I too wish Sony would do that too. If they did, then they would rule this whole fight hands down.

No mention on the service anywhere else.

I can't see this coming to the UK for months unfortunately. :(

Time to get an American PSN account... somehow, you need a US registered credit card :(

You can't even look at the video store if you aren't in the US. It's not even a tab at the top of the screen.

Meh, this could be good for rentals. I won't purchase a show, or a movie from this service. I really like 1080p and uncompressed audio too much.

Good move, it's about time we get a decent video service. FWIW, you don't need a gold Live subscription to buy or rent movies, gold is only for online multiplayer. The goofy netflix announcement is just an add-on for gold subscribers on Live.

Russ
1)I doubt this will be world wide tonight which will hurt sony a bit.
2)Apple has a deal in place with many studios for the next while before they can get first dibs.

I don't see what the big deal is. Honestly, while I love my PS3, I have been able to download movies from Xbox for awhile now. Most of these studios are on the xbox and the xbox has HD downloads too (similar to this some are HD some are SD while some are both). So regardless of the Netflix thing, xbox 360 has been able to do this for awhile now. Guess I just don't see what the big hype is (unless you don't have a 360 then this is great!)

@ jayme
Do you have a netflix account? Their watch-instantly service does have some new releases, but the majority of the titles on that service are low-rated trash.
The content is not in HD (why would I want to watch standard definition video on my 60 inch 1080P 120Hz TV?)
Microsoft claims HD "can" be added in the future, but that is purely speculation on their part.
I bought my PS3 to not just play games, but to watch Bluray films and DIVX files burned to DVDs, as well as to listen to music.
This new video download service is very promising. With every PS3 having built-in wireless, anyone can access their wireless network to stream these films on their TV.

I'm thrilled about all the channels. Especially Funimation. Good to see anime is getting around (even if it is crappy, dubbed, lip forced, non-graphic edited...)

More companies will get behinds this soon. Why you ask? because, unlike Netflix, Sony is dealin directly with the film studios. That means that the film studios are the ones who bank off the purchase and will want to publish more content. WTG Sony

I definitely prefer this service, I don't watch many movies so I'd hate to pay for a Netflix account AND a XBL account just for convenience sake. With the PSN service however I can watch as much or as little as I like without worrying about wasting money on a month when I don't have time for movies/gaming.

Best part is that it all starts in a few hours!

You know what, this Joystiq's comments do suck. No, "real" login, and you never can tell if the post will ever get there.

Anyway, this is a great move by Sony. The movie companies will start publishing crap loads of content to the service because unlike Netflix's service, Sony is dealing directly with the studios. That means the studios get money for every purchase/rental. This is the exact answer movie studios have been looking for.

I see no reason to keep my Netflix account.

You'd keep your netflix account because EVERY studio's movie come out on DVD. Neither live nor or psn has every studio's movies available for download, so that's why you'd keep it.

i agree with you. i usually go to netflix to watch old movies i missed when it was in theaters or movies that came out when i was a kid and never had a chance to watch it. this is way better... i might just cancel my membership today!

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PSN video delivery service with 8 studios to launch tonight

Reader Comments (90)

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