Just days after Sony announced a deal with Sky television to bring on-demand video to PlayStation Portable owners in the UK and Ireland (also with hopes to expand to Europe in the future), the firm has now announced that Portable-TV (P-TV), an equivalent service in Japan is to close on August 30.

P-TV launched in the region at the end of July 2005, offering free movie trailers, promotional videos, and TV shows from China and Korea. However, Sony's next move was a kick in the teeth to gamers and the likely cause of the service's eventual downfall.

Specifically, all of P-TV's downloadable media is DRM-protected (Digital Rights Management) and only accessible for a limited amount of time - ranging from 5-30 days. To add to the restrictive misery, each premium video must be bought separately.

Perhaps giving users full ownership of their downloaded content or offering a cheap subscription fee might have been a better tactic but, according to PSPHypher, Sony has promised to deliver a better service to Japanese consumers in the future.