Sony wants live Internet TV for PS3, TVs, players

Sony may be in an unintentional race with Apple to bypass the limits of traditional TV providers for its own live TV service, multiple sources might have disclosed on Tuesday night. The electronics giant is believed by the Wall Street Journal to be talking to media firms to get rights for streaming TV channels. The focus would be on Sony's own devices, ranging from Blu-ray players through to TVs and the PS3.

The strategy would try to improve on traditional TV by reducing the amount of channels that viewers would need to pick in bundles. Establishment providers like Viacom have often been hesitant to embrace more advanced Internet video, both because of the ad revenues that come from TV but also from their fear of being punished by cable and satellite providers trying to resist the move online.

As a proposal, it's not certain if the deal will complete.

The move wouldn't be the first proposed effort in the industry. Apple has repeatedly been rumored planning a iTunes video subscription service that would give users a block of TV shows for a discount on buying them one by one. Apple may have encountered the same stumbling blocks from traditional TV sources as Sony, however.

Separately, another tip from the same paper had Sony Music, along with Universal and EMI, signed up for the Google music store being unveiled at a Los Angeles event on Wednesday. The details were familiar and would see Google+ used to give "one or two" free listens to songs to friends in circles. Other leaks have shown

The Google Music cloud service, however, wouldn't get a change and would still be left behind Apple's recently launched iTunes Match. Where Apple's service will save the trouble of uploading most songs as long as it can find their matches on iTunes, Google's service requires uploading every track and transcodes anything that isn't in the service's default format, slightly degrading the track.

By Electronista Staff

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