Sony has beaten Microsoft to the punch and will offer its PlayStation 3 gaming console as an IPTV set top box next month, in partnership with Korea's new high definition Mega TV service.
Mega TV is backed by local telco giant KT, which last month offered high definition service to its entire 5.5 million broadband customer base and is hoping the bundling of the PS3 console as an IPTV set top box will fuel demand for the new IPTV service.
The PS3 includes a DVD drive for high definition Blu-ray formatted discs and a fast, high-quality graphic processor. The bundling of gaming consoles and set top box technologies has long been considered an important convergence milestone and its first time offering as an IPTV set top box will be closely watched by IPTV and game console manufacturers, telco's and broadcasters world wide.
Earlier this year Microsoft's Bill Gates announced the company's Xbox 360 would have IPTV functionality by the end of this year. Microsoft's entertainment executive, Robbie Bach, said the software giant was negotiating with a number of telcos including AT&T, British Telecom, Deutsch Telecom, and Swiss Telecom.
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