"We believe that USBTV represents an exciting new category of flash-based products that will bring digital downloading of video to a broad spectrum of new consumers who prefer viewing on their TV sets rather than on a PC screen," said SanDisk's CEO, Eli Harari, in a statement.

SanDisk also announced the creation of the USBTV Forum, whose purpose is go garner industry-wide support of USBTV among consumer electronics manufacturers, TV and display manufacturers, content providers and related technology companies.

"USBTV has the potential to become an industry-transforming category as significant as the introduction of the DVD and VHS players, because in the convergence of the Web and home entertainment, USBTV solves in a simple, elegant way the 'last 10 feet' of the content portability problem in the home between the PC and the TV," Harari said.

Other companies contributing to the USBTV initiative include Akimbo Systems, Inc., and Guba, an online entertainment destination. Movielink is also working closely with the forum on protecting movies and other rights-managed video content.