According to a report in the Financial Times, Sony will introduce a video download service for its handheld PSP console next year. Sony has made no formal announcement about the plan, though it has hinted coyly that something similar may be in the works for the PS3 too, and has promised to give details early in the new year.

Sony is attempting to rope in movie companies to make their catalogues available through the service, though so far only Buena Vista is known to have signed up. Movies will be downloaded to a user’s PC and will then be transferred via memory stick to the PSP. File sizes are estimated at around 400 megabytes per film, and some form of copy protection, with details as yet undisclosed, will prevent the user from making more than one copy.