The Financial Times reported on Sony’s plans to bring audio and video downloads to the PlayStation Network:

“We are building a software infrastructure to distribute video and music, more particularly video, through the PlayStation Network,” said Sir Howard Stringer, Sony chief executive, during an interview in Moscow. “That is a Japanese and American combined effort to build a platform around a common software architecture to distribute video via the PlayStation network into the [PSP handhelds] and beyond.”

“We are trying to get our devices to talk to each other efficiently. PlayStation Network should migrate from gadget to gadget. But initially it starts with PlayStation devices and then to TV and beyond. That’s the goal,” Sir Howard added.

This should come as a surprise to absolutely no one, as Sony has always made it clear they feel the PS3 is more than a gaming platform as they’re trying to position it as a home media hub with gaming, Blu-ray and DVD support, the forthcoming DVR dongle for DVB-T territories, and now broadband content. Microsoft already has downloadable video content for the Xbox 360, so it was inevitable that Sony, with all of their media holdings, would bring a similar service to the PS3. I’m hoping to see full HD movie downloads.