This offer applies to the 40, 46 and 55 HX853 models, and is scheduled to run up until 30th January 2013. The press release also suggests, though, that the offer will only be available ‘while stocks last’ – so if the idea of bagging the full Bond Blu-ray monty at the same time you buy one of 2012′s best TVs appeals, then we suggest you get a move on.

Bond Boxset: Yours for no extra money at all if you buy one of Sony’s HX8 TVs before the end of January.

The service launched yesterday (October 30th), and can be accessed directly from Sky’s On Demand programme guide. It joins catch-up TV services available on Sky from ITV and Channel 5, with Channel 4′s 4oD service incoming early next year.

The iPlayer: Now available on a Sky box near you.

The deal will allow more than five million homes with a Sky TV subscription, compatible Sky+ HD box and broadband connection to access hundreds of hours of recent and classic Channel 4 shows, including complete series of its iconic franchises.

Channel 4 is the UK’s most successful commercial video on-demand service, and will be a welcome addition to Sky’s platform. The only pity is that the 4oD service isn’t going live until early next year.

The 4oD support isn’t the only element of the new Channel 4 deal, either. For starters, there will also be two new HD channels coming Sky’s way: Film4 HD and More4HD. These new channels bring Sky’s HD channel count up to 66.

The deal will also find Channel 4, More 4, E4 and Film 4 content being added to Sky Go – Sky’s online and mobile TV service. This marks the first time that a terrestrial network has been added to Sky Go, giving people access to Channel 4 content from iPhones, iPads, iPod Touches, selected Android phones, the Xbox 360 and, of course, PCs and Macs.

Today’s news comes on top of Sky’s recent improvements to its EPG and iOS listings app, as well as its launch of Now TV. So it’s looking as if the satellite giant appears to be in the midst of a fairly profound period of technological change. Needless to say we’ll bring you news of any new developments as and when they happen.

First up is the SR5007: a 7.2-channel hub for any home cinema system. The £699.90 SR5007 features a variety of networking facilities for audio streaming from PC and Android, Internet ratio, online services and AirPlay from Apple iDevices. It also sports six v1.4 HDMI inputs (one on the front), making it 3D-ready. If you’re lucky enough to have one of Sony’s 4k VW1000ES projectors, meanwhile, you might be interested to hear that the receiver can upscale incoming video to 4k.

Marantz SR5007 and UD5007: Bringing a touch of class to your AV kit pile.

In addition, the SR5007 offers 100W across each of its seven channels; carries the Audyssey MultiEQ XT and Dynamic Volume Control systems to aid set up; supports Multi-room playback with multi-source flexibility; and provides Marantz’s Dynamic Expander Version 2 processing for optimising the audio quality of compressed music files.

The new Blu-ray player, meanwhile, is the £499.90 UD5007 ‘Networking Universal Disc Player’. As its name suggests, this goes a bit further than your average Blu-ray player, playing back SACDs as well as CDs, supporting streaming from your networked PC, or allowing you to go online to access the likes of YouTube and Netflix.

At its heart, meanwhile, is an advanced disc mechanism designed to deliver a fast and whisper-quiet performance.

Both the SR5007 and UD5007 will be available in July in black or silver-gold.

Sony once led the way with OLED, but had apparently pretty much given up on being able to make the technology affordable enough to become a consumer proposition. But now, with LG and Samsung both intending to launch OLED TVs into the consumer space this year, the Japanese brands have clearly been forced to rethink their TV strategy. Leading to this announcement of a cooperation between them.

Sony OLED TV: We can expect the brand’s next OLED models to be bigger and better value than its 11in 2008 debut.

While it’s likely this deal will have been quite painful to reach for both brands, it’s a clear sign so far as we’re concerned that the big Japanese players are starting to approach the changing AV landscape in the much more pragmatic way they need to if they’re to continue being as competitive as we – and surely any serious AV fan – would want them to be.

The only catch is that predictably the new joint venture isn’t likely to yield any actual products until 2013, giving LG and Samsung a substantial head start in this potentially critical (in the long term) new TV market. So hopefully Panasonic and Sony’s first screens next year will hit the ground running.

The new deal is with Fox, and will give Lovefilm exclusive rights to Fox films in their ‘second window’. Which is to say, after Sky TV, but before other TV broadcasters and other video streaming services – including Netflix.

Lovefilm: Another day, another exclusive film content deal.

What this means in date terms is that Lovefilm will be able to show Fox films released into cinemas in 2011 in March 2013.

The deal also gives Lovefilm the rights to show back catalogue Fox films and TV shows from July 2012 – pretty handy when you consider that these TV shows include 24, Prison Break and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Lovefilm has also announced a deal with Miramax – a studio which was previously only available via Netflix.

First out of the traps will be the NSZ-GS7. Set to cost £200 and hitting stores on July 16, this startlingly small box of tricks will enable buyers to enjoy both full Google Chrome Internet access through their TV as well as the increasingly polished-looking Google TV service, which features a TV-optimised operating system and a growing array of TV-optimised websites.

Sony NSZ-GS7: Bringing the Internet to your telly like no other device before.

Naturally the Android-based box supports Wi-Fi as well as LAN integration into your network, and features an HDMI loop through system so that it can deliver simple switching between online and TV functionality.

Shipping with the main GS7 box is an impressive-looking remote that features a touchpad on its front and a full, tactile QWERTY keyboard on its rear.

If you fancy combining the Google TV system with a 3D Blu-ray player, Sony is also launching the NSZ-GP9. This £300 model features a stylish white finish, and also adds voice recognition technology to the spec of the GS7. This model will set you back £300, but you’ll have to be patient, as it’s not expected to go on sale until October.

Sony Google TV: combining TV and Internet functionality through an easy to use interface.

Having first seen and not been especially convinced by these boxes at an exclusive Sony ‘unveil’ in Japan in February, we were glad to  see at the UK launch for the product last week that Google seems to have improved the interface quite a bit. Plus the world appears to be rapidly warming to the idea of having unfettered online access on their TVs rather than having to work within the ring-fenced content offered by most current smart TVs.

The widespread availability of Smart TV functionality on this year’s TVs still makes us wonder just how much of a market there really is out there for Sony’s Google TV boxes. But this doesn’t alter the fact that the functionality they offer really does feel like a glimpse of the future of TV.

If you want to find out more about the new Google TV boxes – or preorder one – click here.

LCD shipments across the globe fell by 3% in the first quarter of 2012, as part of a general decline in TV shipments of nearly 8%.

LCDs like Panasonic's 55WT50 are hoping to cash in on the trend for larger screen sizes.

NPD DisplaySearch, the organisation reporting the figures, attributes the slowdown in shipments to ‘soft demand and cautious expectations about the upcoming year in many parts of the TV supply chain’.

LCD’s first ever shipment decline is no solace to plasma technology, though. For NPD DisplaySearch also reports that plasma sales dropped by a huge 18% in the first quarter of this year, following an 8% decline in the last quarter of 2011.

There is one bit of good news for AV brands to cling to, however, namely that people seem to be increasingly wanting to buy bigger screen sizes. The market share for 40in and larger TVs has increased from just under 31% a year ago to more than 37% in the first quarter of 2012.

A survey of 1100 people by SAY Media found that 9% of respondents said they primarily watch video content via disc (DVD and Blu-ray), compared to 7% who consume video on a laptop or PC.

Blu-ray: People like us still like these.

Apparently just 1% of respondents watched video on a mobile phone.

In the 18-44 age bracket, 10% of the people surveyed preferred physical media versus 6% for streaming – though as a likely glimpse of the future, the support for streamed video leapt to 11% among the younger market.

This clever little device enables cable-free transmission of 1080p video and 3D images – together, impressively, with 7.1-channel lossless surround – to any HD video devices. All you have to do is connect the HDMI output from your Blu-ray player, HD TV receiver, PC or AV receiver to the DVDO Air’s transmission unit and it will beam video and audio magically through the air to a receiver unit either simply clipped to your display or else fastened behind it using a provided bracket.

DVDO Air: High quality audio and video transmission without any sodding cables.

The DVDO runs at 60GHz, and operates in a band of frequencies (six channels are available) well above those used by other wireless devices in the home or office, so it should deliver its AV goods without suffering interference from Wi-Fi systems and phone networks.

Latency for the system is rated at just 2ms, and range is reckoned to be up to 10m with no line of sight or up to 30m with line of sight.

The DVDO will be available in July for around £350. For stockist information contact karma-av (01423 358846).