Screwed by Time Warner? Get a PS3

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Screwed by Time Warner? Get a PS3

After threatening to pull channels like Comedy Central and MTV [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/88406-Time-Warner-Cable-Set-To-Lose-Viacom-Channels] from cable company Time Warner, Viacom is bringing its programming to the PlayStation Network.

You may remember that at the end of 2008, Viacom was threatening to pull the same channels from the Time Warner cable network, over a dispute on pricing and that it dropped to some rather underhand tricks [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081231/ap_on_bi_ge/viacom_time_warner_cable] to get the public vote and a final settlement.

Well, Sony Computer Entertainment America [http://www.gamesindustry.biz/resources/directory/company/scea] announced at CES on Thursday that TV shows that will be available for purchase via the PSN include South Park, SpongeBob SquarePants and Rock of Love Bus with Bret Michaels. New shows due to premier in spring. Sound familiar?

Microsoft already made a similar deal back in 2007 [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/80118-Microsoft-and-Viacom-Join-Forces], but the timing for this one seems a little odd, especially if Viacom was planning this before the bust up with Time Warner.

Sony's PlayStation Network holds over 3,000 TV episodes and 1,000 movies that can be watched on the PS3, and some of the standard definition content can be watched on the PSP.

With South Park's usual language though, this new deal may give "Blu-ray" another meaning entirely.

Source: Edge [http://www.edge-online.com/news/mtv-networks-shows-come-psn]

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[Jumplion]

Cool. Just cool. Pretty nice to have a few extra shows on the PSN.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

When will this come to the UK!? How come us Europeans are always left out?

 

[Avida]

Sony's PlayStation Network holds over 3,000 TV episodes and 1,000 movies that can be watched on the PS3

I know its frowned apon to quote the OP so early on but where is all this video? I havnt seen anything remotely like that on my network, moreover the current UK PS store would be horrible for displaying that volume of titles :s

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

Sony's PlayStation Network holds over 3,000 TV episodes and 1,000 movies that can be watched on the PS3

I know its frowned apon to quote the OP so early on

NP

but where is all this video? I havnt seen anything remotely like that on my network, moreover the current UK PS store would be horrible for displaying that volume of titles :s

I believe it's down to the PlayStation Network's video service. Not having a PS, I'm a little stuck behind the actual details, but from the main website -

PlayStation Store
Visit PlayStation Store to download exclusive content for your PS3 and PSP, such as full games, High Definition movies and game trailers, as well as early access to betas and multiplayer demos.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

... Great, two shows we so utterly do NOT need on the PSN.

 

[Jumplion]

but where is all this video? I havnt seen anything remotely like that on my network, moreover the current UK PS store would be horrible for displaying that volume of titles :s

I believe it's down to the PlayStation Network's video service. Not having a PS, I'm a little stuck behind the actual details, but from the main website -

PlayStation Store
Visit PlayStation Store to download exclusive content for your PS3 and PSP, such as full games, High Definition movies and game trailers, as well as early access to betas and multiplayer demos.

I don't know about anything outside the US, but for me the PSN store has a little "Games" tab and "Videos" tab. Just click on it and you're on the video downloading store. I have no idea if it's for other countries though.

 

[joystickjunki3]

When will this come to the UK!? How come us Europeans are always left out?

You're not always left out. You guys got some cool NeoGeo Pocket games we didn't and some pretty awesome Saturn and Dreamcast games that were never released here.

EDIT: That is, never released on those consoles.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

When will this come to the UK!? How come us Europeans are always left out?

You're not always left out. You guys got some cool NeoGeo Pocket games we didn't and some pretty awesome Saturn and Dreamcast games that were never released here.

EDIT: That is, never released on those consoles.

Well whoop de do. I'm glad we got some nice games 10 years ago on consoles that I never had. I think Sony has it in for Europe in this console generation. The PS3 was released about 6 months after the USA (and it didn't have hardware PS2 emulation), no cool videos on the PSN, Home EU has less features than the USA and Japan, etc. I know we fought a war against Japan, but we're cool now; right?

 

[TheBadass]

I can't even get onto the fucking video store yet. Hurry up SCEE, seriously.

 

[Susan Arendt]

A big problem with bringing video content to countries outside the US is currency conversion (or so I've been told by folks at Microsoft and Sony). They can agree to charge X dollars, but when it comes down to how many Euros, for example, they should charge for programming from American companies, they kind of all fumble.

 

[Susan Arendt]

A big problem with bringing video content to countries outside the US is currency conversion (or so I've been told by folks at Microsoft and Sony). They can agree to charge X dollars, but when it comes down to how many Euros, for example, they should charge for programming from American companies, they kind of all fumble.

They could always do the exact exchange and not be dicks about it like when they increase the price of games by like 10-20%

I file that under "We aren't sure how much we should be ripping them off by" which is why we never got .Hack//G.U. and other games.

But here's the problem - let's say ABC strikes a deal to sell its shows for $2 each, just to pick a number out of thin air. Today, $2 equals 5 Euros (again, just picking numbers out of thin air, I have no clue what the exchange rate is). Tomorrow, it equals 7. Next week, it might equal 2. Do you change the prices on the PSN to compensate? Cheat the customers? Lose money? Or do you just set a completely different set of prices for each individual country?

 

[ElegantSwordsman]

Why would anyone pay for content they can watch for free through a plethora of sites offering free streaming tv? The movies I can possibly understand, since I presume the video quality will be a big factor but the shows, especially cartoons like South Park... hardly worth it. Especially since the target audience already has internet access, which is presumably high speed. It's not going to take a great leap of faith to assume they'll go for the free option.

 

[Susan Arendt]

Why would anyone pay for content they can watch for free through a plethora of sites offering free streaming tv? The movies I can possibly understand, since I presume the video quality will be a big factor but the shows, especially cartoons like South Park... hardly worth it. Especially since the target audience already has internet access, which is presumably high speed. It's not going to take a great leap of faith to assume they'll go for the free option.

Perhaps they don't like watching shows on their computers, especially if they're watching with friends. Also, it allows you to watch specific episodes on demand, which you can't always do with free streaming sites. (Sometimes you can only watch the most recent episode of a particular show.)

 

[ElegantSwordsman]

Why would anyone pay for content they can watch for free through a plethora of sites offering free streaming tv? The movies I can possibly understand, since I presume the video quality will be a big factor but the shows, especially cartoons like South Park... hardly worth it. Especially since the target audience already has internet access, which is presumably high speed. It's not going to take a great leap of faith to assume they'll go for the free option.

Perhaps they don't like watching shows on their computers, especially if they're watching with friends. Also, it allows you to watch specific episodes on demand, which you can't always do with free streaming sites. (Sometimes you can only watch the most recent episode of a particular show.)

Don't most computers these days come with a tv-out port anyway? I have not one but two on this particular one, so I'm gonna assume that anyone willing to pay for mediocre tv should be willing to shell out $30 for a video cable. Granted, it won't be everyone that has aforementioned ports.

As to your other point, I've noticed that it's mostly the cable tv station sites offering streaming that do this... and yeah, it's really really annoying to only see the last 1 or 2 eps. But most respectable third party streaming sites worth their salt will archive the entire series.