British PS3 owners can now enjoy a range of U.S. television shows that have been added to the U.K. PSN Store. But the range of content is lacking, the lack of a rental option bizarre, and the cost of buying excessive.

PS3 TV Streaming

Games consoles are rapidly becoming the living room devices by which people are consuming digital content. With always-on access to the Internet and a range of apps, widgets, and Web browsers providing a smörgåsbord of choices to the switched-on gamer, home games consoles are doing much more than playing games these days.

Hit U.S. TV shows including 24, Arrested Development (soon to be a Netflix-produced show), Breaking Bad, South Park, and Two and a Half Men are now available to watch on the Playstation Network in the U.K. If you can get your head and your wallet around the obvious issues at hand.

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Roku is heading international, with its set-top boxes becoming available to buy outside of the U.S. for the first time in the new year. As always content is king, and the hardware will be nothing but an expensive brick without partners providing content.

Roku

Roku made its debut in 2008 as the Netflix Player before adding many more content partners and evolving into the rather neat little set-top box pictured above. In the U.S. there are a range of boxes available, with prices ranging from $49 to $99. International pricing has yet to be announced.

In many ways Roku was the forerunner to the current-generation Apple TV and Google TV. These big-name companies saw an opportunity developing to deliver video content via the Internet using a small, unobtrusive, connected set-top box, something Roku has been doing for several years.

But Roku isn’t standing still while other companies try to catch up. Instead it’s heading international, which somewhat signals a return to its Netflix roots.

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They way we consume media, be it television, movies, music, games, or news is changing. Rapidly. All thanks to the Internet. But the old media dinosaurs are hanging on by their fingertips, despite attempts to get them to freefall into this new era.

Sony TV

Sony is reportedly considering setting up an online TV offering to rival cable. According to the Wall Street Journal, Sony would deliver TV channels over the Internet to connected Sony devices such as games consoles, television sets, and Blu-ray players.

The Japanese technology giant has already approached the likes of NBC Universal, Discovery Communications, and News Corp. Sony wants to challenge the might of the cable companies by undercutting them on price and offering much more flexibility with channel choices.

This strikes right at the heart of many people’s problems with cable right now: it’s too expensive, and the channel packages forced upon you are ludicrous.

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Google TV is still waiting in the wings trying to find its market. Google will hang in there waiting for consumers and content owners to catch up with its ambitions, but other companies are bailing out now. And I can’t say I really blame them.

Google TV

Google TV was unveiled in the middle of last year after a little teasing from Google. The two main partners were Sony and Logitech, the former integrating the software into television sets and Blu-ray players, the latter releasing a set-top box named Revue.

Unfortunately Google TV didn’t take off for many reasons: The unfinished nature of the software, the price of the hardware, and, worst of all, the fact that all of the big television networks and other premium content owners blocked Google TV access to their programming.

The writing was on the wall from that moment forth.

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In the U.S., and probably elsewhere in the world in the territories where gaming is popular, games consoles are the primary platform for viewing online video content on a television set. Who needs games when you have a world of digital content at your fingertips?

A Prediction Proved

If you watch online video on your TV then the chances are you do so using a games console. At least according to new data from a market research firm. Which really should come as no surprise as it was a trend we foresaw happening way back in February 2009.

It was then I wrote an article primarily about more content coming to the Xbox 360 but also suggesting that games consoles were becoming “important drivers of online video” and helping make the sector “mainstream and accessible to all.” Both predictions have been proven correct in the two years since that article appeared here on WebTVWire.

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Steve Jobs revealed some vague future plans for Apple before he passed away from pancreatic cancer earlier this month. Including a possible Apple television set. Which is a nice idea but something that still feels like it’ll be years away.

Apple TV

The Apple TV set-top box has never been more than a hobby for Apple, with Steve Jobs admitting as much a few years ago. However, it’s always been clear that Jobs and co. had bigger plans for the device and was merely waiting for the industry, technology, and consumers to catch up.

We now have some proof of this, with Steve Jobs’ biographer Walter Isaacson revealing Jobs’ thoughts on the future of the product. Forget a small set-top box, we’re talking about a true Apple television set here. Which would no doubt be white, have rounded edges, and be called iTV.

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Microsoft wants the Xbox 360 to be the only set-top box you need to have sat next to your TV. And it’s going a long way down the path to achieving that with its latest line-up of TV services coming to an Xbox 360 near you soon.

Games Consoles Plus

This generation of home games consoles are more than just for playing games on. All three current models – the PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii – can be hooked up to the Internet and turned into entertainment hubs in your living room, delivering digital media down the tubes and on to your television.

This has been going on for several years now, with Microsoft and Sony continually upping the ante in terms of the number of partners, and quality and range of content. And Microsoft is taking things to a whole new level with its latest effort on the Xbox 360.

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