Sling Media, which EchoStar acquired last week for $380 million, has reportedly earned DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem certification from CableLabs for a new model of its Slingbox. A Slingbox with a cable modem embedded in it should make it easier for consumers to set up and operate Slingboxes.
Slingbox owners can remotely watch anything they can watch on their TV set – live and DVR-recorded TV shows and movies – from any Internet-connected device.
Lightreading.com said that a CableLabs spokesman declined to comment, pointing out that Sling Media had requested that CableLabs not disclose the device’s certification status. It also said the certification could signal that Slingbox has a deal with a cable TV service. DOCSIS 2.0 compliant gear will be used only with cable TV services. EchoStar has no DOCSIS 2.0 gear in its own network.
Sling Media CEO Blake Krikorian told Cable Digital News that EchoStar had not put any limits on the kinds of business growth opportunities Sling could pursue. He said Charlie Ergen, EchoStar founder and CEO, “has given us free reign to sell at retail and work directly with content owners in the US and around the world.”
Krikorian wouldn’t talk about embedding the company’s place-shifting functions into an EchoStar receiver. In fact, he said that such an implementation could happen first with another pay-TV service.
WiMAX, if delivered as promised, is certain to open the market to millions of portable video device owners that will want to connect to their Slingbox back home. Imagine embedding Slingbox functions in the Archos portable media players that EchoStar is selling under the PocketDISH brand.
PocketDISH units allow EchoStar subscribers to copy shows from EchoStar DVRs and play them back whenever and wherever they want. And, then imagine the Slingbox-capable Archos gear coming with embedded WiMAX and its own wireless, high-speed Internet access, courtesy of EchoStar’s deal with Clearwire.
The Archos gear seems never to have sold at the potential that might have been expected, especially considering its excellent hardware specifications such as its large screen and high video resolution, although it is rather pricey.
Also the market for Slingboxes might be larger than anticipated. One Slingbox user who had traveled to London and wanted to watch a show that his cable TV service was showing back in California found that his TV channel kept changing. It turns out that his wife was trying to watch a different channel on the same TV set that the Slingbox was connected to. Does that mean that dual-occupancy homes where one or both travel will need two Slingboxes?