Sony have announced plans to launch an online download service next year.

It will see the ability for Sony product users to download media content such as music and videos to their televisions and other Sony devices. The move is part of Sony’s Chief Executive, Howard Stringer’s aim of converging their strengths in electronics such as Bravia televisions and the Playstation console with its music label and movie studio productions.

The company aims to have the service up and running at somepoint in 2010, “and earlier in the year would obviously be a lot more preferable in my mind”, adds Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s Executive Vice President.

The service will build off of the current Playstation Network system, which currently boasts over 33 million registered members who can play games online along with purchasing and downloading content such as game demo’s, HD trailers along with themes and other media.

“There are already a lot of services out there but we want to try to bring something that is uniquely Sony to the experience. One of the things we really need to get into is the whole concept of user-driven content”, Hirai said in an interview.

Sony also stated that while some of the features on the service would be free, others would be paid-for, although there was no mention of a monthly subscription fee so whether it’ll be pay-per-use/view or a fixed fee is still to be confirmed.

I’m looking forward to seeing what Sony can do with this, Playstation Network is built with a solid infrastructure and it’s a great service all in all. I hope they can follow on from that with a content-rich download service.