Sony reportedly in talks with studios

By Amanda Fehd

updated 2:58 p.m. ET April 21, 2008

SAN JOSE, California - Sony Corp. is reportedly negotiating licensing deals with studios to distribute videos online through a long-promised service for the PlayStation 3.

Citing studio executives who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, The Los Angeles Times newspaper reported Monday that Sony could launch the service as early as summer.

A Sony spokesman declined to comment.

"We don't have anything new to announce at this time," Sony spokesman Patrick Seybold said in an e-mail.

But a Sony marketing executive said in a blog post last week that news could come soon.

"Ultimately the goal of the PlayStation Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want. More on this very soon ...," Sony's Peter Dille wrote on its PlayStation blog.

Sony said in March the latest upgrade to the PlayStation will enable the device to stream video from the Web. It has said since at least 2006 that it plans to provide video services through its game console.

The Tokyo-based company has sold 10.5 million of the machines since they went on sale in late 2006.

Sony's biggest competitor in the market would be Microsoft Corp. About 10 million subscribers to its Xbox live service have access to thousands of hours of television shows and movies to watch using the Xbox 360 gaming console.

(Msnbc.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal.)

But numerous other software, hardware and e-commerce companies offer similar services.

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