On Friday October 21st Sony and Quickflix announced that they had entered an agreement to allow Sony PlayStation 3 owners to stream movie rentals. Announcing the deal Quickflix CEO Chris Taylor said “Having entered a streaming agreement for Sony Bravia in July we’re very excited to now extend the partnership to PlayStation via its game console platform” So what does this mean to you?
Adding to the media products already available on the PlayStation, Quickflix will join the PlayStation Network Video Delivery Service (PSN VDS) and MUBI on the Xross media bar (XMB). Michael Ephraim, Managing Director of Sony Computer Entertainment Australia & New Zealand said about the deal “This exciting agreement with Quickflix will further enhance PS3’s already strong entertainment on demand credentials across TV, games, music and now, an even larger range of movie options.”
This new deal with Sony goes a long way towards Quickflix’s mission to become a major entertainment brand in Australia and one that can boast a million customers by 2016. Quickflix online states it holds almost 50,000
movies, TV series, documentary and sporting titles across 400 genres. With members adding titles to their Quickflix Queue online, DVDs titles are then automatically selected from that Queue and delivered in individual postage-paid envelopes. After the client has watched the title they then return it to Quickflix in the reply-paid envelope they received with the disc, then the next DVD on the Queue is sent out and round and round you go. There are no due dates or late fees and currently online subscription plans start from AU$5.99 per month so I am interested in seeing the cost of an instant delivery service like streaming.
Sony’s PlayStation has been moving towards becoming a one-stop for all the home’s entertainment needs and this deal moves them to an even stronger spot on the list. Currently with a PlayStation you have a very long list of music at your fingers with Sony’s own Music Unlimited and VidZone. If movies are more your thing then you have the DVD Blu-Ray player, PSN Movies and Mubi. If you can’t get enough TV then try the catch-up options with ABC’s iView and Seven’s Plus7 for anything you have missed. Oh and of course there are all the great games from AAA to Mini titles available to download from the online PSN store. Now with Quickflix added to XMB, the future for PlayStation is looking very bright.
