As if the Korean's getting a PlayStation 3 with a bigger hard drive wasn't enough, now we've gotten word that the mid-June launch of the PS3 in Korea will also come with VOD capabilities. According to some Sony spokespeople in Korea, the larger hard drive and the VOD were decisions made hand-in-hand. If you think about it just a little bit, it makes perfect sense, no?While no company has been named as a partner for the plot, many are speculating that Sony will sign up with Hanaro Telecom -- a company who recently released something called HanaTV. It's a VOD service that demands a fun little box to accompany your TV, allows you to download stuff, yadda yadda. The point is this: instead of some fun little box, you can use the PS3 instead, although you'll still have to pay the subscription costs for HanaTV.
Sony doesn't have any plans to bring this stuff to the US or Europe yet, but we really feel that Korea is a testing ground of what's to come. If the plans are received and executed well there, we can probably expect a similar service to come around the world later this year.
[also try this delicious story in Joystiq flavor!]
1. From a 2006 HanaTV press release:
hanarotelecom has signed a deal with Sony Pictures Television International (SPTI), which distributes Sony Pictures Entertainment’s (SPE) feature films and television programming around the world. Major films titles include the feature films Spider-Man 2, Fun With Dick And Jane, and Kung Fu Hustle.
The company has explained that it had secured more than 22,000 contents(16,000 hours), signing agreements with more than 50 domestic/foreign content providers including the Walt Disney Television, CJ Entertainment, SBS, BBC Worldwide, YTN, EBS, Daum, and National Geographic. hanarotelecom has revealed that they are looking to collaborate with the likes of MBC, along with other major Hollywood movie producers such as 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros, in order to provide differentiated premium content services to customers.
Posted at 2:38PM on May 24th 2007 by Kspraydad