Comcast Mulling a TV Slinger?

Comcast has filed for trademarks on two devices designed to take cable TV programming outside the living room.
 
One is a portable/handheld media player called "AnyReach." The other one is "XtraScreen" – which sounds like it could be a Slingbox-style gadget to broadcast TV programming over the Internet (see Comcast Filings Hint At Video Gadgets).

XtraScreen covers “computer hardware and software for streaming audio and video content,” as well as wireless transmission of voice, data, images and information, according to Comcast’s trademark application. It also refers to entertainment services providing television programming via a “global computer network” (i.e., the Internet) and wireless networks.

Here’s another data point: Sling Media, now part of EchoStar, is pitching cable operators on the SlingModem, a CableLabs-certified DOCSIS 2.0 device. 

SlingModem, so the spiel goes, lets an MSO integrate two legs of the triple play — video and broadband Internet — into a service that (1) increases revenue per sub and (2) is not available from DBS or telco TV (for a time, anyway). 

If Comcast or another major MSO were to offer a Sling service, it would mark a turning point. "Slingboxing" could become as common as "TiVo-ing." 

The category would evolve from a techno-enthusiast niche to a service that any digital cable subscriber can order from the cable company for (let’s just pick a number) $3.99 per month.

Digital video recorders did not become a mass market until the cable companies began offering their own DVRs. 

Indeed, TiVo, with all its incredible brand equity as a synonym for "DVR," has concluded it must partner with cable to try to drive more growth (see TiVo’s Catch-22, Comcast Brings TiVo to Boston-Area Subscribers, and Cox to Launch TiVo in New England).

Will Comcast’s "XtraScreen" be among the first cable-ized Sling services? For now it’s just an idea, but it may be a means of driving incremental revenue and making the bundle even "stickier."