A new player in the online video game is emerging in Sling.com. Well the service is new, not really the player. Owners Sling Media have been around for a while, focusing primarily on hardware, but that is all about to change, starting with Sling.com, which has just begun beta testing to select users.
Sling Media is mostly known for its “SlingBox”, a piece of hardware that lets users stream their regular TV signals to wherever they want. Its “Sling Catcher”, which allows TV signals to be transferred from room to room in a user’s house is getting ready to ship as well.
Sling.com will combine streaming content from as many as sixty partners with the home television streaming capabilities of the Slingbox, which includes “on demand” and DVR content – the whole enchilada. In other words, if this is all it’s cracked up to be, Hulu, Joost, and others better be thinking of new edges as well, or at least adding the home-TV concept into their current packages, and partnering with as many content providers as possible.
As I’ve said nearly every day this week, I believe, we are seeing strides made every day toward a future of online video domination, and this offering from Sling looks to be the latest piece of the pie, and potentially a pretty big one at that.
It’s not even launched yet though, so I’m not going to hype it up anymore than that. Just suffice it to say, I’m intrigued. I can’t wait to see what video news surfaces tomorrow. I’m still pretty excited about the Netflix Starz partnership, if just for the simple fact that Netflix seems to be taking the expansion of its streaming content catalog more seriously. TechCrunch has a look at an email Sling sent to its Beta invitees, and Mercury News has more details on the SlingCatcher if you’re interested.
