Sony to launch online video service for PlayStation 3

Will the third time be the charm for Sony Corp.?

The entertainment and electronics giant is preparing to launch an online video service through its game console PlayStation 3 as early as this summer, studio executives familiar with the plan say.

The company has been in licensing talks with studios in recent weeks, according to these executives, who asked to remain anonymous because of the sensitivity of continuing negotiations.

The initial version of the service would include movies and television shows flowing from the Internet to the PlayStation 3.

It would follow two other disappointing online ventures backed by Sony in recent years: Movielink, which attempted to become the online equivalent of the video store for mainstream Hollywood movies before being sold last year to Blockbuster Inc.; and Sony Connect, the company's response to Apple Inc.'s iTunes download service. It shut down in March.

The latest service, provided through the online PlayStation Network, is Sony's attempt to stage a comeback in digital entertainment distribution. The maker of the once-dominant Walkman portable music player is still smarting from its defeat by Apple in the online music revolution.

"They've got to get a win in the digital, and I'd say on the electronic delivery side of the business," said Kurt Scherf, an analyst with Parks Associates who studies technology in the home. "That's where the future is. They've got to establish a toehold in that space."

The latest initiative seeks to harness Sony's strengths as a maker of high-definition televisions and consumer products as well as a creator of films and TV shows.

Sony is trying to capitalize on its Trojan horse in the living room, the PlayStation 3. The console is already connected to the TV and the Internet, and has sold more than 4 million units in the U.S. and 9 million worldwide, according to Wedbush Morgan Securities in Los Angeles. The console gave Sony the decisive edge in the battle to establish its Blu-ray discs as the standard for high-definition video in the home, trumping the HD DVD format backed by Toshiba Corp., Microsoft Corp. and others.

The new service would position Sony to compete with the growing number of Internet-connected devices and services that deliver video to the TV, including AppleTV, Vudu and Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.