Sony Plans Video Downloads For All Key Products

Sony sets new growth strategy centered on video-downloading services and electronic products that can be connected to each other and to the internet.
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After spending the past three years restructuring, Sony Corp. set a new growth strategy centered on video downloading and electronic products that can be connected to each other and to the Internet.
The Japanese electronics maker plans to offer a video-downloading service through all its key products, including its televisions, computers, music players and video game devices, in the next three years. It plans to give 90% of its product categories network and wireless capability in the same period.
"Our mission is simply to be the leading global provider of networked consumer electronics and entertainment," Chief Executive Howard Stringer said.
Sony plans to start this summer by offering movies and other video content through its PlayStation3 video game console's network service in the U.S.
It will begin delivering movies directly to its Internet-connected Bravia liquid-crystal display televisions in the U.S. this autumn. Sony said it would become the first company to stream a movie directly to a television without a set-top box and without a cable- or satellite-TV subscription.
Mr. Stringer, charged with turning around the struggling company when he took over in June 2005, has been slashing costs, cutting jobs and getting rid of unprofitable businesses. With those efforts completed, the latest strategy will be a big test of whether he can also stimulate growth for the company.
As Internet connections have gotten faster and consumers are getting more of their entertainment online, analysts say, downloading services for movies and television shows could become a market worth billions of dollars in the U.S. alone.
Mr. Stringer, a former movie executive, has often talked about the importance of designing products that can be connected to each other and combined with easy-to-use software to download video, music and other content.
Establishing a dominant position in this area is crucial for Sony. Its Walkman music devices lost out to Apple Inc.'s iPods because the Japanese company didn't have compelling music-downloading software.
Sony, which owns a movie studio and a music company, has an advantage over rivals because it has access to both content and electronic devices and can play off the strengths of both industries. For example, the first movie it plans to offer directly to TVs is "Hancock," a Sony Pictures movie it will release before it is available on DVD.
Still, it is coming in late to a market crowded with strong rivals. Apple, for example, offers a set-top device, Apple TV, that lets users play music and video from their computer-based iTunes library. Microsoft Corp.'s Xbox 360 video game console already offers video downloading.
Also, Sony has had problems in the past getting its notoriously independent product units to work together. A previous effort to create a portable music player and online music service for the Walkman failed in part because of internal squabbling.
Mr. Stringer has been laying the groundwork for the latest effort, promoting executives who understand software and content as well as Sony's traditionally strong area, hardware.