In addition to announcing the launch of its new tablets yesterday in Berlin, Sony (NYSE: [[ticker:SNE]]) said it’s combining its Qriocity on-demand music and video services with the PlayStation Network under a new brand, the Sony Entertainment Network. The announcement underscores the importance Sony is placing on its online content—and how the company has endeavored to make it easier for its tablet users to find their entertainment in one place.
In a post this morning, PaidContent blogger Ingrid Lunden says an added bonus is that it erases the unfavorable connotations conjured by the network security breach earlier this year that allowed hackers to pillage 24.6 million user accounts from the San Diego-based data centers for the PlayStation Network and Qriocity. (One part that doesn’t quite fit Lunden’s thesis is that Qriocity and the PlayStation were both part of Sony Online Entertainment, a brand that isn’t that different from the new Sony Entertainment Network.)
In its own blog entry, Sony casts its new Sony Entertainment Network as “the ultimate digital destination,” accessible from users’ PlayStation Network accounts. As part of the change, Sony says, “Qriocity services will be realigned under Sony Entertainment Network. As a consequence, Video on Demand powered by Qriocity will now be called Video Unlimited, and Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity will become Music Unlimited.
Author: Bruce V. Bigelow
In Memoriam: Our dear friend Bruce V. Bigelow passed away on June 29, 2018. He was the editor of Xconomy San Diego from 2008 to 2018. Read more about his life and work here.
Bruce Bigelow joined Xconomy from the business desk of the San Diego Union-Tribune. He was a member of the team of reporters who were awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in National Reporting for uncovering bribes paid to San Diego Republican Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham in exchange for special legislation earmarks. He also shared a 2006 award for enterprise reporting from the Society of Business Editors and Writers for “In Harm’s Way,” an article about the extraordinary casualty rate among employees working in Iraq for San Diego’s Titan Corp. He has written extensively about the 2002 corporate accounting scandal at software goliath Peregrine Systems. He also was a Gerald Loeb Award finalist and National Headline Award winner for “The Toymaker,” a 14-part chronicle of a San Diego start-up company. He takes special satisfaction, though, that the series was included in the library for nonfiction narrative journalism at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University.
Bigelow graduated from U.C. Berkeley in 1977 with a degree in English Literature and from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism in 1979. Before joining the Union-Tribune in 1990, he worked for the Associated Press in Los Angeles and The Kansas City Times.
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