It seems like finally Sony has decided to officially confirm its long-rumored movies download service for PlayStation 3.
Kazuo Hirai, the president of Sony Corp.'s video game unit, said Thursday in a press conference that the new service will be launched this summer in the United States, while the European and the Japanese will have to wait a little bit more.

The first rumors about a movies download service for PlayStation 3 and PSP emerged in 2005 when, speaking at the Digital Hollywood conference, Michael Arrieta, senior vice president of Sony Pictures, said that Sony was planning an “iTunes” for movies. "We want to set business models, pricing models, distribution models like (Apple Computer CEO Steve) Jobs did for music, but for the film industry," said Arrieta at the time.

Also in an interview given in February last year to the gaming site 1UP.com, Phil Harrison, President, Worldwide Studios, Sony Computer Entertainment, acknowledged that it was possible that soon enough PS3 users would be able to download movies and TV shows from PlayStation Network.

“I think it's incredibly important that we establish what PlayStation 3 stands for. And I think PlayStation 3 needs to stand for gaming and digital entertainment in the living room pushing the envelope of high definition, pushing the envelope of broadband, and of course that includes more than just games. We don't have the announcements that you're probably looking for today, but it is digital data. We have a hard drive, we have a commerce engine, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out we will have that on the network very shortly” he said during the interview.

In December 2006, prominent business newspaper The Financial Times rolled out the first information about Sony’s video service, stating that the unnamed application will be a direct rival for Apple’s iTunes. Apparently, PSP owners will be able to download on their PC the videos they want and then easily transfer them to the PSP’s flash card.
In April this year, Peter Dille, Senior Vice President, Marketing & PLAYSTATION Network, confirmed that Sony was working on a video service.

“…we’ll be offering a video service for PS3 in a way that separates the service from others you’ve seen or used. Ultimately the goal of the PLAYSTATION Network service will be to break through the overwhelming clutter of digital media to give you the TV, movies and gaming content you want. More on this very soon …,” he wrote on the Playstation blog.

The launch of its own video download service is a logical move for Sony because it may boost the sales of its gaming consoles, which are lagging far behind its competitors.

Also it will help the company to keep the rhythm with Microsoft. In November 2006 Microsoft had introduced Xbox Live Video Marketplace, a service which delivers to gamers in the U.S. TV shows for download to own and movies for download to rent from CBS, MTV Networks, Paramount Pictures, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS, Inc.), Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Warner Bros.

However, in the past years Sony’s attempts in the online content distribution have not been so successful. In 2007, Sony announced it was pulling the plug on its Connect store, because the ATRAC format failed to become an alternative to MP3 and other formats. Sony’s Connect music store was launched in 2004 as a response to iTunes Music Store, but it was closed in March this year. In addition, Sony sold Movielink, a former joint-effort of Sony, MGM, Paramount, Universal and Warner, to Blockbuster. Currently Sony has an installed base of more than 5 million PS3s only in the United States and close to 12 million PSPs.

Update: During the same conference, Kazuo Hirai announced also "Life With PlayStation," a virtual globe software which is similar but apparently more professional than Nintendo's forecast and news channels.
However, Hirai explained that "Life With PlayStation" will be much more than news and weather and, for example, the users will be able to store movies and photos. More details and a launch date are to be announced.