PSP™ (PLAYSTATION®PORTABLE) VIDEO DOWNLOAD SERVICE
Download service to revolutionise handheld entertainment — Leipzig, 22 August 2007. Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) today provided more information on its joint venture with British Sky Broadcasting (Sky) …
Context & Ripple Effects
SCEE used this week's Leipzig Games Convention to detail the joint venture with British Sky Broadcasting that puts downloadable video on the PSP — the handheld's clearest push yet beyond games. It lands two months after the BT–SCEEE wireless broadband deal for the PSP added the network layer such a service needs, and speculation has been building all summer around Sony extending the device, including an unconfirmed report of a Sony Ericsson PSP phone.
The timing is deliberate: on the same day SCEE unveiled PlayTV, which turns the PS3 into a digital personal video recorder for watching programmes anywhere — with the PSP positioned as the screen you take that content on. Together, the Sky download service and PlayTV sketch a broadcast-to-handheld pipeline built on Sky's content, BT's connectivity and Sony's installed hardware.
First-order effects
- Sky gains a direct-to-device distribution channel for its programming onto the PSP, while SCEE gets premium television content that differentiates the handheld from pure game devices.
- BT's wireless broadband commitment to the PSP becomes load-bearing infrastructure: the download service only works if the connectivity deal announced in May 2007 delivers.
Second-order effects
- PlayTV owners get a second reason to buy into the PlayStation ecosystem — record on the PS3, watch on the PSP — which pressures rivals' handhelds to answer with their own video propositions rather than game-only line-ups.
- Broadcasters beyond Sky face the template question: if Sky's programming travels over Sony hardware to individual screens, other UK and European broadcasters must decide whether to partner with console makers or build their own portable distribution.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, television stops being a set-top-box experience and becomes a device-anchored one, with console manufacturers negotiating directly with broadcasters for content rights — a structural shift in who controls the living-room-to-pocket pipeline.
- Carrier-style bundling moves into entertainment hardware: content (Sky), connectivity (BT) and device (Sony) sold as one proposition, prefiguring how handhelds compete against phones for the same viewing minutes.
The trend: Console makers are converting handhelds into portable television endpoints through broadcaster and telecom partnerships, with Sky, BT and Sony's Leipzig announcements marking the UK test case.