Sony is getting ready to directly link its consumer electronics products and considerable movie and TV content libraries.

Later this year the company will begin providing video content to PlayStation 3 users via the recently-launched PlayStation Network, and will start a streaming video service for owners of Bravia TVs with a network connection.

"This continues to be one of the clearest opportunities for Sony to leverage its entertainment assets to differentiate its electronics products," said Howard Stringer, chairman and CEO of Sony at a Tokyo news conference.

As part of the push the company will increasingly build Internet connectivity into its products. By March 2011, it plans to have network-enabled and wireless capable products available in 90 percent of its product categories, and aims to roll out the video services to key devices by the same date.

The PlayStation 3, which shipped with an Internet connection from launch, is one of its most widely used network-capable products beyond PCs. Around 50 million of the consoles are in the hands of consumers and just under 10 million accounts exist on its PlayStation Network, which is used largely for games.

"We have an enormous global installed base upon which we can build network services," said Stringer. "With the inclusion of our Blu-ray player, Wi-Fi and hard drive in every PS3, I am confident that the PS3 is the network home entertainment server of the future."

The next step in the roll-out will be to extend the PlayStation Network to personal computers and later to networked consumer electronics products like televisions and Blu-ray Disc players, many of which can already be hooked up to the Internet. Portable devices like the video Walkman and Sony Ericsson cell phones will also be supported.

Before the PlayStation Network gets to televisions Sony will begin offering streaming content via Bravia Internet Video Link, an Internet contents service it launched in the U.S. in 2007. The Bravia service will launch in the U.S. later this year and in November Sony Pictures will offer the upcoming Will Smith movie, "Hancock," at no cost to all Internet-connected Bravias before the movie's DVD release.