Sony's entertainment blast: a broadband portal

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By Laura Rich and Ronna Abramson

(IDG) -- This fall, Sony plans to launch an extensive broadband entertainment portal on the Web. Company executives are showing off a preview to the media and analysts at an Internet conference this week in Long Beach, Calif. Should someone tell them it's not 1999 any more?

Screenblast, as it's called, hopes to sidestep the entertainment portal path famously strewn with the remains of Pop.com, Digital Entertainment Network and the once-robust Entertaindom. "Content on the Web is beyond getting a bad rap," said Yair Landau, president of Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment (SPDE), which developed Screenblast. To be different, Screenblast will be "more software-centric than broadcast-centric," Landau said.

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Offering video and music clips, editing tools and expert filmmaking and record-producing tutorials, Screenblast is meant to serve as a do-it-yourself entertainment portal for film and music buffs, as well as a place for top-tier talent to reach consumers. More importantly, it also will serve as a cross-company effort by promising visitors richer experiences with the site if they use Sony products such as its Vaio laptop, Clie handheld device, digital cameras, Sony's memory stick and the PlayStation family of game consoles. Landau said Sony Consumer Electronics engineers are designing new versions of the Vaio to include a Screenblast tool, and will begin to do the same for other devices.

The site has elements reflected in other entertainment sites. Universal Pictures' Hypnotic is a film site that offers tools and tips for aspiring filmmakers. Shockwave and Tonos help them cut and mix film and music without leaving their Web browsers. And Screenblast takes a page from AtomFilms, which gives Web pages to members who post their content on the site. It's all part of Screenblast's mantra, "experience, create, connect."

SPDE executives said the site will make money by selling advertising and sponsorships in the form of branded content and specially designed multimedia ads that slide onto a corner of consumers' Web browsers periodically.

Consumers also will pick up the tab. Although Sony will offer all visitors the chance to create video and music clips ö and storage space to keep them ö subscriptions will be available that give consumers more storage space and access to five higher-end editing tools. Sony executives expect the price for a single tool might be $69 with a full-suite charge of $169.

Landau won't say exactly how much traffic Screenblast needs in order to break even, but did say Screenblast "doesn't need a large percentage of broadband audience to reach its goal."

SPDE is the unit of Sony that is developing MovieFly, a video-on-demand service that will deliver movies from Sony and other studios to consumers over the Internet. SPDE also oversees the game site Everquest and Sony's interactive TV efforts, such as its partial stake in the cable channel Game Network. Landau said no special staff was created for Screenblast, which will be produced and marketed by the existing SPDE staff. Now, that's not very 1999.