Sony has been responsible for TV hits like "Who's the Boss?" and current hit shows like "Rescue Me" and "The Shield." Yet, while Sony Pictures Television has offered up a lot of content in the U.S. for TV over the years, they never successfully launched a major TV network in the U.S. to tap into the advertising wealth available in it.
Now with broadband penetration increasing in the U.S., it is offering up new opportunities that Sony is making sure they get a piece of.
In response, they're making an online push to create content to attract online video advertising. The vehicle they're going to use is a new broadband channel called the Minisode Network on MySpace.
They'll use the new online channel to show reduced clips from old TV shows from Sony'y library. The company will reduce the size from between three to five minute clips. Monetization will come through sponsorships by national advertisers.
Another initiative in the online space by Sony Pictures was the introduction of two original drama's last week on FEARnet, a service offerd by Sony, along with Lions 
Gate Entertainment and Comcast.
Sony will unveil its most ambitious online effort next month, as they introduce a new "Grouper," the video-sharing Web site they bought last year for $65 million. It will be relaunched under a new name and look, with new niche channels and content exclusive to the site.
There will eventually be user-generated features where people can take clips from different TV shows and do a remix with their own personal content to produce customized videos.
What's interesting about this, is Sony's lack of moving into the TV network space in the past, has now created an advantage for them by default.
Other networks are trying to use their Web intiatives as a companion to their TV networks, rather than stand alone businesses themselves. Because Sony doesn't have a "major" TV channel, it doesn't need to concern itself with whether it will cannibalize the network.
The only thing they've done with their television strategy has been in reference to "Seinfeld," which they've decided to keep off the Internet at this time. With the comedy being a cash cow, they don't want to put price pressures on it by distributing it on the Web, and reducing its syndication value.
Sony's a little late to the online game, and needs to move a little faster. The lack of concern about cannibalization does give it an edge in speed on its other traditional media competitors. Now they need to leverage that far quicker and deeper than they've been doing.
With the quality that can come out of Sony for video content, they should be able to compete pretty good in this space. Still, their other major competitors have been faster to get things going than them.
The Internet has proven that it is different than offline businesses in being the first to market. It's very nature takes away some of the advantages that being first to market offer physical businesses. So in this case, entering the field at this time shouldn't be too late for them. They do need to go deeper now that they're officially pursuing this strategy.
According to eMarketer, online video ads should draw about $2.1 billion in advertising this year, with it growing to about $5 billion by 2010.
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