Sony Takes on Apple's ITunes With New Video and Music Streaming Service

Sony Corp. said it is starting Qriocity, a video and music streaming service, in five European countries this fall, challenging Apple Inc.’s iTunes store.

“Sony will deliver a variety of digital entertainment content and services that are powered by Qriocity, including video, music, game applications, and e-books over time,” the company said. The service will go head-to-head with iTunes and will start in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the U.K.

The service draws on the experience that Sony has made with its games platform, the Playstation Network, that has over 40 million registered accounts, Fujio Nishida, head of Sony’s European operations, said at the IFA consumer electronics conference in Berlin today. He did not give pricing details.

“We are excited to offer our customers high-quality, cloud-based entertainment experiences across many of Sony’s network-enabled devices,” said Kazuo Hirai, president of Sony’s Networked Products & Services Group, in a statement.

Qriocity will be available via Sony devices including Bravia TVs, the PlayStation 3 game console, Blu-ray disc players and Vaio personal computers. The video-on-demand service will offer hundreds of film titles from studios such as 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Lionsgate, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. and Paramount Pictures.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ragnhild Kjetland in Frankfurt at rkjetland@bloomberg.net

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