AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

Crave
Sony has just confirmed the rumor we all heard back in April: video downloads will be available on the PS3 this summer. Details right now are scarce, but we do know the service will first be rolled out in the United States, followed by Japan and Europe later in the year. As we mentioned before, [...]

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The Wall Street Journal
Stringer Sees Growth In Download Services, Connected Electronics
After spending the past three years restructuring, Sony Corp. set a new growth strategy centered on video-downloading services and electronic products that can be connected to each other and to the Internet.
The Japanese electronics maker said Thursday that it plans to offer a video-downloading service [...]

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paidContent.org
Sony (NYSE: SNE), which is always on the hunt for a new strategy or direction, has offered up its latest growth plan across its various myriad business lines. As described by a Thomson wire report, the company will focus more on organic investment—$16.7 billion through 2011—than on cost cutting, as it’s done in the past. [...]

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MediaWeek

The 13 episode Jace Hall Show will feature a mix of interviews with pop culture figures along with goofy stunts such as indoor skydiving
Sony Picture’s original video content destination Crackle.com has announced a handful of new upcoming projects, including the gaming/sophmoric-humor-themed The Jace Hall Show as well as Take-Away Shows, a series produced by well [...]

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The New York Times
How do you make money on television sets when your competitors keep cutting prices? Throw in a little Will Smith, of course.
Howard Stringer, Sony’s chief executive, tossed out that idea at a lunch meeting Wednesday with people from the editorial and business sides of The New York Times. He noted his company’s [...]

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Silicon Alley Insider
Sony (SNE) announced its first-ever original series for the PlayStation, a video series about gaming produced by Future US (publisher of PlayStation: The Official Magazine). The series is called “Qore” and will be hosted by sorta-Web-celeb Veronica Belmont. Viewers will also be able to download and play mini-games. (And as commenter Cruiz Dwyer [...]

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Fortune
Those annoying set-top cable boxes may soon be a thing of the past. But, like it or not, they’ll be replaced by a different kind of device.
The announcement this week that Sony plans to work with other television makers to eliminate the need for set-top cable boxes could not have gained more affection at [...]

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paidContent.org
Sir Howard Stringer is doing a star turn as chief salesman for Sony (NYSE: SNE). One of his top messages: Playstation 3, which was “sort of on life support before” is doing very well now. One reason: “It has a life beyond that of the video game.” The PS3 is a server, the Playstation [...]

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NewTeeVee
Sony has joined forces with six of the top cable companies in the U.S. to adopt tru2way technology in its TVs, thus eliminating the need for a set-top box when accessing television and other interactive services. Apple, Netflix, Sezmi and anyone else working on a set-top box should be nervous.
Sony isn’t the first TV [...]

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Yahoo Press Release
Sony to buy digital media ID company Gracenote for $260 million
Sony Corp. of America said Tuesday it agreed to buy digital media identification company Gracenote Inc. for $260 million.
Gracenote’s database supplies song names for CDs in a computer. It is also working on building a movie library to identify DVDs and determine if [...]

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