Sony Planning PS3 Tuner, DVR Functionality?

Sony's New Zealand marketing VP Warwick Light says Sony is planning to introduce a digital TV tuner and DVR functionality to the PlayStation 3 by March 2008.

In an interview with The Press in New Zealand, Sony marketing head Warwick Light apparently spilled the beans on some of Sony’s forthcoming plans for the PlayStation 3, saying the company plans to introduce a tuner and TV recording capabilities to the console. According to Light, the additions would come around the time the New Zealand’s Freeview terrerstrial digital TV service is due to launch in March 2008.

“We’re also hoping next year—about the same time that Freeview launches its terrestrial broadcasting service (expected to be in March)—to release a digital tuner for the PS3, turning it into a programmable TV recorder,” Light said in the interview.

Freeview plans to use the DVB-T and DVB-S standards to broadcast digital television and digital radio; the service is currently available in New Zealand via satellite. If Sony is planning on supporting Freeview in New Zealand, it would be logical to assume the company would support Freeview in the UK and other European nations. However, it does not necessarily follow that Sony would introduce analog or digital television tuners for the U.S. market. Industry watchers are looking to next month’s Leipzig Games Convention as a possible forum for an announcement; analysts are also anticipating a price cut on the Sony PlayStation 3 in Europe and other markets before the end-of-year holidays.