Sony moves to trademark PlayStation TV

Sony has submitted a new trademark application for 'PlayStation TV', having previously held the trademark for six years until it lapsed last September. As spotted by an IGN reader, the application was made with the United States Patent and Trademark Office last month. While Sony has already released a PlayStation branded TV, the trademark in question is for a "service" of some sort.

It's unclear whether Sony Computer Entertainment plans to launch a new TV service, but at E3 it announced plans for greater collaboration with Sony Pictures Entertainment, its parent company's TV and film production and distribution unit, which produces shows including Breaking Bad, Justified and Community. In an interview published last week, PlayStation boss Andrew House told the Guardian: "Whereas I think you could have slightly accused Sony of a bit of forced synergy, if we'd been trying to enact this collaboration several years ago, the fact is now, with 110 million PlayStation Network accounts worldwide, that's a substantial business opportunity for Sony Pictures to reach a different audience."

Referring to Sony Pictures CEO Michael Lynton's on-stage appearance during Sony’s E3 press conference last month, House said: "So he was talking about two things. One is significant interest and work which is already under way to develop original TV-style programming content, which could be made available with some form of exclusivity to people on the PSN - essentially using PSN as a distribution network. The second point was to find ways to give earlier or exclusive access to other forms of content that Sony Pictures has - again, for people who are on PSN and particularly for members of PlayStation Plus."

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Sony revealed the actual PS4 hardware for the first time at its E3 press conference, where it also announced a Christmas release date in Europe and the US and a PS4 price of £349 / €399 / $399, which is $100 less than Xbox One’s launch price.