Since the start of digital tv, and the availability of more than just the standard..

Sony have today confirmed their Playstation 3 console, and connected Bravia TV's will be getting the dedicated BBC Sports App. This app will work along side the existing iPlayer and BBC News apps and should be available in time for Wimbledon later this year.

Not only covering Wimbledon, the app will enhance the coverage of the 2012 Olympics, apparently bringing us up to 2500 hours of coverage via 24 HD streams. Thats a LOT of viewing!

Sky is to launch a new Pay as You Go TV Service, Now TV, this service will be subscription free and allow the user to pay only for the content they want to watch.

Now TV will launch on a wide range of devices, presumably all those supported by Sky currently and maybe others as well.  To start, you will be able to view shows and movies, but sports and other entertainment will follow. This allows Sky to provide a service to compete against Lovefilm and Netflix, but also offer content the others cannot like Sports.

The service is due to launch later this year for anyone who wants it (a Sky broadband connection won't be required), with more details on pricing to follow as well.

This morning brings the launch of the BBC's iPlayer service on Microsoft's console, the Xbox 360. With this launch the BBC now provide their online streaming / catch up TV service across all of the current generation platforms.

Netflix has announced it plans to roll out its streaming service to Europe as early as next year. They have said they will offer unlimited TV show and streaming films over the internet to compatible TV's and computers for a single low monthly subscription.

There is no announcement about the pricing structure yet, however it is looking like it will be streaming only, no DVD service like in the states.

Could this be some serious competition for Lovefilm and similar? More information will be released closer to the start of the service.

From today, you will be able to use the iPlayer website to search for and browse content from its competing services (ITV Player, 4oD and Five on Demand). This is part of a program where by the content providers share meta-data with each other, allowing users to search via one site but will still have to go to the other to view the content.

The other content will be accessible via the search system or the scheduling tools on the iPlayer site.

There are limitations and restrictions with this service, like content that may not be complete but this is a start to sharing data between the sites, working towards central systems that will be able to view all content.

Next question I have, is will WE be able to get this meta-data to provide links to the content here… we can hope that’ll come eventually!

Channel Five will, from today, be once again known as Channel Five. In what seems like a backwards step from its previous rebranding that happened in 2003 to just Five (dropping the word Channel) it has now added Channel back.

We’ve mentioned Lovefilm here before now, in that you can not only rent DVDs and Games from them, but you can also stream the films directly to your PS3.

However, this week Amazon have announced they are buying the film and dvd rental service, having run their own service for a period before closing it and partnering with Lovefilm instead.

This merger should enable Lovefilm to continue to develop and improve their services for their estimated 1.4million customers.

Lovefilm currently operates in the UK, but also parts of Europe, including Germany, Sweden and Denmark.

Just in time for Christmas, it has been confirmed that ITV and Channel 4 have reached agreements with Sony to bring their respective on demand video services to the Playstation 3.

While both have been available through the web for a long time, this is the first time either platform will be available on a console.

Recently Sony has made a big push to get media on the Playstation, making it a real media hub in the living room.

Lovefilm is coming to the Playstation 3 this November, this will provide a streaming rental service for UK users of the console. If you are on Lovefilm’s £5.99 or higher package you will get access to their streaming service as part of it.

The service will allow subscribers to stream films directly to their TV from the XMB (Cross Media Bar) and for those users who aren’t subscribers there will be trial options.

The service should roll out this November and complement the existing iPlayer system and the in the works ITV Player / 4oD services making the Playstation 3 the perfect media system for a home.