SlingPlayer Mobile service on Apple iPhones. Sling Media, a subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation, demonstrated a version of the software at this week’s Macworld Conference and Expo.
The company plans to submit the software to Apple by the end of the first quarter for approval to have the application available for purchase in the iTunes store, said Brian Jaquet, director of PR for Sling Media.
The new service will enable users who own Slingboxes to stream live TV content from their TVs — including local channels, video on demand and pay per view — directly to their iPhones. Users also can control their digital video recorders (DVRs) to watch previously recorded programming and queue up new recordings from their PCs while away from home, straight from their mobile handsets.
The original Slingbox service — a set top box — allows users to perform these same actions from their PCs. Slingboxes have a one-time cost of $180 to $300 and don’t require a subscription fee. They can be purchased from retailers like Best Buy and Amazon.com.
SlingPlayer Mobile is already available on Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian OS and BlackBerry smartphone devices. The technology uses a standard broadband network connection.
Jacquet said that Sling Media has not announced the pricing for the iPhone application, but said that Sling Media’s similar applications for other mobile devices are around $29.99.
Sling Media also owns Sling.com, an online video site that has a partnership with Hulu.com. The site shows free, ad-supported, full-length episodes of current and classic television shows, movies and broadcast station content.
