EchoStar plans to show HD-enabled Sling at CES
By Jacqueline Emigh, BetaNews
November 16, 2007, 12:17 PM
With the ink still barely dry on its agreement to buy SlingMedia, EchoStar is already mapping plans for a big Sling announcement at CES 2008 in January.
This week in New York City, EchoStar Satellite LLC , the provider of the satellite-based Dish Network, showed Sling's gear at its booths at both a pre-CES product expo and a press event in Pepcom's "Digital Experience" series. There, we learned the company's announcement is slated to involve SlingMedia's products for accessing video from PDAs, laptops, or just about anywhere else.
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Last September 24,
EchoStar agreed to acquire Sling Media - makers of Slingbox hardware and SlingPlayer software - for $380 million cash.Francie Bauer, EchoStar's corporate communications manager, told BetaNews that EchoStar's plans for CES include the announcement of Sling Mobility Package, a bundle that will bring together an EchoStar HD-DVR receiver and Slingbox SOLO - both of which are HDTV-capable - with EchoStar's TV programming offerings.
Right now, it looks as though, for a small extra fee, users who lease the receiver will be able to lease Slingbox, too, making a separate purchase of Slingbox unnecessary.
Bauer said later that EchoStar is also eyeing the possibility of using CES as the launch pad for an upcoming, Wi-Fi-enabled edition of the EchoStar Pocket Disk media player, a product that provides handheld access to video content.
"It's possible that the bundle might include the WiFi Pocket Disk player, too, but that hasn't been decided yet," she told BetaNews.