News, info, and opinion by Mac users, for Mac users.

September 26, 2007

video

Sling Media gets bought up by EchoStar

Posted Sep. 26, ’07, 6:27 AM PT by Derik DeLong
Category | Video

Slingbox One of the coolest video products on the market right now is Sling Media’s Slingbox. There are several variations of the product, but the overall concept is a small, self-contained box that one attaches to your TV source, box, or even DVR and your internet connection/network. You can then watch that video from your Mac, your PC, or even your smartphone (Treo, Pocket PC, or Windows Smartphone).

If you can’t already tell, I think the product is near perfection. I’m not the only one though, as EchoStar, the satellite dish TV operator, acquired Sling Media. The deal is worth $380 million. Now, it’s pretty easy to see what EchoStar gets out of the deal. They can include the technology in their boxes, or, as the more helpful suggest, they could do it in reverse, beaming TV over the net instead of using the increasingly bandwidth constrained satellite connection.

Now, this is a win for them, but it leaves many of us in the lurch. It’s not in EchoStar’s best interest to continue offering, and further developing a product that can be used with TV service offered by its competitors. This may sound like a paranoid delusion, but I’m terrified they’ll kill the product for use as anything but an optional add-on for their service. Fingers crossed people (because you know the next thing to go after supporting other services is the Mac client).

(And just to throw another log on the iPhone SDK bonfire, this is an application that can’t be done with web 2.0. We need that SDK before the iPhone will ever be a way to watch your Slingbox.)


Leave a comment

 



Visit other IDG sites: