Sony to Offer "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" OTT on Bravia Devices Prior to DVD/Blu-ray Release

Sony Electronics on Monday launched a promotion for its Internet-connected Bravia HDTV's and Blu-ray Disc players, under which 1) customers who purchase a new Bravia device and register it between November 9th and January 4th will receive a free, over-the-top 24-hour rental of the 720p HD version of the Sony Pictures animated feature film, "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs"; and 2) existing Bravia customers (including customers of the W5100, Z5100, XBR9 and XBR10 series HDTV's and of the company's new BDP-N460 Network Blu-ray Disc player) will be able to rent the film for $24.95 between December 8th and January 4th. The promotion sees the film being made available exclusively to Bravia customers for up to four weeks before it is available in retail on DVD and Blu-ray Disc.

According to Sony, the promotion--which follows a similar promotion last year that made the movie, "Hancock," available on Bravia devices two weeks prior to its DVD release--is supported by a special broadcast commercial featuring "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" characters, that began running November 9th. "Given our breadth of content and strength in networked products, Sony is the first company to utilize its Internet-enabled TV's and other networked devices to stream feature films directly to consumers' televisions prior to availability on DVD or Blu-ray," Hiro Kawano, SVP of Sony Electronics' Home Division business, said in a prepared statement. "We hope that consumers who own networked Sony Bravia and Blu-ray Disc players take the opportunity to bring family and friends together during the holiday season to enjoy this warmhearted movie."

In other over-the-top-TV news: IP Vision, a company backed by French set-top box manufacturer, Netgem, contacted [itvt] Monday to let us know that it has signed a deal with UK electronics retailer, Carphone Warehouse (CPW), that will make its FetchTV SmartBox available in the latter's wireless flagship stores. This is the second deal that IP Vision has signed with a retail chain this year: the first, with John Lewis, was announced in July (see the article published on itvt.com, July 19th).

The FetchTV SmartBox is a Freeview+-accredited (note: Freeview+ is a program operated by UK free-to-air digital terrestrial platform, Freeview, and the UK's Digital Television Group to "raise consumer awareness and promote sales" of Freeview DVR devices) hybrid box that allows customers to receive Freeview channels via broadcast and access catch-up programming and other Web-based VOD content through an IP connection. Free Web video services supported by the box include offerings from Channel 4, Sky Sports News, Discovery Channel, CNN, and--most notably--the BBC iPlayer. IP Vision also recently announced a deal with BSkyB that will bring the Sky Player service to FetchTV in early 2010 (see the article published on itvt.com, October 14th). In addition, the box allows customers to access 1,500 hours of content from such providers as Paramount Pictures, National Geographic, and Cartoon Network on a pay-per-view basis. While the FetchTV service is somewhat similar in concept to BT's BT Vision platform, which also marries Freeview reception to an IP-based service that offers a broad range of pay-per-view content (alongside various subscription-based programming packages), IP Vision touts the fact that the SmartBox can be connected to any operator's broadband service.

The FetchTV SmartBox, which IP Vision says will be available in CPW wireless flagship stores later this month, retails for £199 and features twin Freeview tuners, a 160GB hard drive, and a USB port (allowing recorded content to be exported on a USB stick or drive).