Dish is getting ready to Sling
Last night’s late announcement that Echostar is acquiring Sling Media did not come as a big surprise to me. And while it did not surprise me it did set off a few flags in my head.
1) Will DISH Network keep Sling as a separate company or would they bring the technology and the company in house?
2) Sling Media is a Partner with DIRECTV and the NFL for delivering the NFL Sunday Ticket online, how will this deal affect this setup?
3) There are a number of other companies who are invested in Sling Media including the soon to be parent company of DIRECTV, Liberty Media. How does this deal affect them?
4) What is going to happen to unreleased products such as the Sling Catcher?
5) When will we see the first receiver from Echostar that has built in Slingbox functionality?
I personally hope that DISH continues to allow Sling Media to be Sling Media, a separate company, a company with some amazing thoughts and ideas.
I personally own 3 Slingbox units and I honestly consider it to be the best consumer electronics device made so far in the 21st century! No matter where I am at I can watch and I can control all of my satellite receivers, I can even watch and control things on my PDA/Phone. Having a 4 year old, the Slingbox has been a godsend, especially when you’re out at a restaurant and your child is being loud. When this happens I pull out my cell phone, log into one of my Slingbox units change the channel to Noggin and give the phone to my son, and now a noisy child is a quiet happy child.
Echostar to spin off?
As I was writing this column I got a press release from Echostar saying that they were considering spinning off its hardware division. The question is what does this mean?
Now I am not a stock guy (and I should state for the record that I own no stock in any satellite company) but what this signals to me is that sometime in the future we could see Echostar selling off it’s Dish Network service to another company, all while continuing to make equipment for Dish Network and while retaining ownership of the Echostar satellite fleet.
Is this what they are planning? Your guess is as good as mine. But it does make you go hmm.
Angelo commented:
I can see them having one company to focus on the programming / satellite fleet and another company to just focus on building their hardware, so when they get in trouble for stealing hardware/patents, the programming / satellite company is isolated.
I can also see them benefiting from having a separate Hardware only company and now with a buyout of sling they need to keep their hardware and satellite companies separate.
hall commented:
If the companies who've partnered with Sling have any sense, their contracts would dictate that their deal carries over in case of a buyout of Sling.