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.

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.