It seems that Sling Media is about to be acquired for the princely sum of approximately $380 Million.

Dave Zatz is reporting that Echostar Communications Company, the people known for its Dish Network Satellite TV will be shelling out that amount for the company.

Sling Media is the maker of the Slingbox and Slingplayer which allow you to placeshift your TV programming from your home across the internet to allow you to view that content anywhere there is an internet connection.

Any time an innovative company like Sling Media is purchased by a larger media/distribution company there are concerns about the future path of that innovative company and this will be no exception.  

NFL Football is right around the corner. DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket has always been a popular item with football fans in the U.S. Now subscribers to Sunday Ticket will be able to watch football games over the Internet.

So what do you need to watch streaming football games at your computer? First of all, you need to buy Sunday Ticket satellite package for $269. Then, you need to pay an additional $99 for the right to stream that video. Total price is $368. Ouch!

I can honestly say that I am not going to purchase non-HD streaming video for almost $400. I think a Slingbox is a much better solution if you have to watch football games over the web.

The NFL should take a page from MLB.TV, the great baseball streaming service from Major League Baseball. MLB.TV costs $99 for the entire season. That is 162 games for every team. On the other hand, sixteen football games for almost $400 seems like a bargain, right?

Sling Media has announced that the SlingPlayer Mobile software client will now be compatible with Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile 6 operating system to connect your Slingbox with your fancy new cell phone.

The SlingBox is a device that can rebroadcast anything on your TV, DVR etc., across your own private internet channel.

This basically means you can take your living room TV on the move whenever you have access to a PC, Mac, or Windows Mobile-based device where you can get a standard internet connection (3G Cellular, WiFi, USB, ethernet).

Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Compatibility

The SlingPlayer software is the “remote control” program that you use on your PC, Mac or cell phone to connect to your home television. The SlingPlayer Mobile software client is now compatible with Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile 6 operating system

In addition the new software release brings:

• New remote control skin with refreshed look and feel.
• Remote control functions for additional A/V devices incorporated.
• Inclusion of a localized UK client utilizing Queen’s English and appropriate channel logos.
• Automatic installer support broadened to include Windows Vista.

Useful Links

• Download SlingPlayer Software
• Buy a SlingBox from Amazon
• SlingBox Deals on eBay:

  Sling Media Slingbox PRO SB200 100 HD Ready US $152.50   14 Bids Auction Ends: 47m Make it yours…

  Dish Network Slingbox Slinglink Turbo W1 SL300 US $19.99   1 Bid Auction Ends: 9h 30m Make it yours…

Press Release

Sling Media Releases SlingPlayer Mobile Software Compatible with Microsoft Windows Mobile 6

New version of SlingPlayer Mobile supports all versions of Windows Mobile 6 allowing customers to watch and control their home TV via a Windows Mobile handheld computer or mobile phone

Foster City, CA — June 21, 2007 — Sling Media, a digital lifestyle products company, today announced that its award-winning SlingPlayer™ Mobile software client is now compatible with Microsoft’s new Windows Mobile 6 operating system. SlingPlayer Mobile gives Slingbox owners the ability to watch and control their home TV from a network-enabled Windows Mobile powered device. With today’s announcement SlingPlayer Mobile is now compatible with devices that run Windows Mobile 6 Standard and Professional editions, Windows Mobile 5.0 and Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition. SlingPlayer Mobile is available for download from Sling Media’s U.S., Canadian, and UK web sites, which can all be accessed from www.slingmedia.com.

“Windows Mobile 6 is powering a whole slew of new, feature-rich multimedia smartphones, and Sling Media is happy to announce SlingPlayer Mobile support for this next generation mobile platform,” We look forward to continuing our support for Windows Mobile-based products, providing customers with the best possible mobile TV experience available.”

SlingPlayer Mobile is available for U.S. customers from Sling Media’s web siteat http://us.slingmedia.com/page/downloads.html. The retail price of the application is $29.99. SlingPlayer Mobile is available for Canadian customers at http://ca.slingmedia.com/page/downloads.html. The retail price is $34.99 CAD. SlingPlayer Mobile is available for UK customers at http://uk.slingmedia.com/page/downloads.html and can be purchased for £19.99 GBP, including VAT. A localized Japanese version will be available in the weeks to come from Sling Media’s web site. All versions of SlingPlayer Mobile include a 30 day free trial.

Customers who have already purchased SlingPlayer Mobile and are upgrading to Windows Mobile 6 need to request a new registration key from Sling Media after upgrading from Windows Mobile 5 to Windows Mobile 6. They can do so by contacting Sling Media customer care at http://support.slingmedia.com or by calling (877) 467-5464.

“Windows Mobile helps people stay connected to the information they care about whether they are traveling or staying close to home,” said John O’Rourke, general manager at Microsoft Corp. “New features in Windows Mobile 6 like support for wide screen viewing will offer SlingPlayer Mobile customers an enhanced mobile TV experience for viewing their favorite TV programs.”

Complete TV Experience
SlingPlayer Mobile gives consumers their entire home TV experience, including local channels, local sports teams, video on demand, pay per view, etc. Any program that you can watch on your sofa back home, you can now watch via a PC, Mac, or Windows Mobile-based device anywhere you can get a standard network connection (3G Cellular, WiFi, USB). In addition, SlingPlayer Mobile users can also control their home digital video recorder (DVR) to watch recorded shows, pause, rewind, and fast forward live TV, or even queue new recordings while on the road.

About Sling Media
Sling Media, Inc. is the world’s leading digital lifestyle company offering consumer services and products that are a natural extension of today’s digital way of life. Sling Media’s product family includes the internationally acclaimed, Emmy award-winning Slingbox™ that allows consumers to watch and control their living room television shows at any time, from any location, using PCs, Macs, PDAs, and smartphones. For more information on Sling Media or the Slingbox, visit www.slingmedia.com.

Media contact:
Brian Jaquet
Sling Media, Inc.
jaquet@slingmedia.com
(650) 293-8022 office
(415) 235-4844 mobile

The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.

Sling Media, Inc., our favorite placeshifting company, has announced today the addition of the SlingLink™ TURBO 1 Port and SlingLink TURBO 4 Port, two new HomePlug® powerline solutions designed to simplify connecting your Slingbox and other home entertainment devices to your network.

We are always excited about new products from Sling Media, especially ones which help us avoid having to rip holes in our walls. SlingLink also keeps you from having to buy a wireless network adapter for each of your devices. Just plug them all into the SlingLink.

Each new SlingLink is packaged as a pair. Plug in one SlingLink TURBO into the wall near your router, and plug in the other SlingLink TURBO wherever you have your Slingbox installed.

The difference between the two products is the SlingLink TURBO 1 Port connects to one device, like a Slingbox, while the SlingLink TURBO 4 Port connects up to four devices such as a DVR, gaming console or any Ethernet-based consumer electronic product.

These new products are available today from Sling Media’s web site, www.slingmedia.com, for an MSRP of $99.99 and $149.99 respectively.

Looking at the Joost interface it will be obvious to many that this is something that you could imagine on your TV screen. In fact, the first moment I saw Joost I thought that’s exactly where the company wants to take it.

Mike Volpi, the new CEO of Joost arriving from Cisco. told The New York Times that:

Joost is a piece of software and it can reside on a variety of platforms… It could be on a television set-top box. Or potentially it could be imbedded in a TV set with an Ethernet connection, or on a mobile phone, or in some alternative device that might come out in the future. The flexibility is really high.”

Possible Set Top Box Partners

But who will this STB partner be? Joost could theoretically just go out there and strike a deal with any STB manufacturer to create a Joost IPTV box that will bring Joost to the TV set.

However, I’ll put my money on the fact that they are also waiting for a deal with a popular brand with a large consumer base.

Let's look at the options:

Last week Major League Baseball was in the news complaining about the Slingbox from SlingMedia.

This week the National Hockey League (NHL) has decided to take the opposite approach and embraced the Slingbox by developing a new service that allows hockey fans to share video clips of hockey game online.

Executives from YouTube and HDNet, appearing before a Congressional subcommittee on the future of video entertainment Thursday, agreed that online video is not a threat to TV, though for very different reasons, PC Magazine reports (videos follow below the fold).

I personally beleive that online video is a threat to TV, but not in the form of video sharing sites like YouTube. It will be in the style of TV platforms and aggregators like Joost. These type of platforms are easily transferable to a living room TV set.

I’ve touched on this topic a few times before:

• Why Google is lying to TV Companies
• Are HD Plasma TVs slowing down the evolution of Internet TV?