Sling's CEO on being acquired by EchoStar: "We are going to rock"

So now that the EchoStar acquisition is public, Sling Media's CEO, Blake Krikorian sat down with SlingCommunity's Matt Whitlock and talked about how the deal is going to affect the place-shifting upstart. In his usual candid way, Krikorian said Sling is going to stay independent, and while the company is obviously going to try and leverage Dish Network's huge install base and software library, it's not going to rule out deals with other content and delivery providers -- in fact, Sling will continue to work with EchoStar's arch-rival DirecTV on things like NFL Supercast. Sadly, there are no juicy product details, but Krikorian did say that "there's some interesting things we're going to be able to cook up." Overall, Krikorian seems incredibly stoked about the acquisition -- which probably means good things for all you place-shifting hooligans out there.

[Thanks, Jeff]

[Dean @ Sep 27th 2007 9:20AM]

Im ready for an integrating streaming sattelite receiver, that would be sweet, even better an integrated sling/DVR box. none of this ir blasting stuff. Im pretty excited about the potential!

[Greg Legowski @ Sep 27th 2007 11:44AM]

That's what I'm hoping for as well. Imagine adding placeshifting capabilities to my 622 (which already DOES have an ethernet port) -- that would be very nice indeed.

Then again, the 622 is also somewhat buggy at times, rolling out new features might not necessarily be a good thing(although it's far more stable and useable than my gf's crappy Motorola box on Comcast...)

[NHAnimator @ Sep 27th 2007 9:39AM]

I highly doubt they can "stay independent" and "work with EchoStar's arch-rival DirecTV" after being acquired.

Owners and their pets invariably begin to look like each other after a while.

[Randy Gentry @ Sep 27th 2007 9:39AM]

They already rock.

[Homer J @ Sep 27th 2007 10:23AM]

Tivo should have bought Sling. It would have given them an edge over the cable competition.

[Dustin Solis @ Sep 27th 2007 11:18AM]

I was thinking that they could integrate Sling technology to get remote guide/recording working too. I know it's in the works for the Vip622 and 722 models.

[Shibathedog @ Sep 27th 2007 11:53AM]

Oh fantastic, Now all the Dish Network subscribers are able to stream their own content since Dish doesn't have any.

Kidding - Theres nothing on cable either :P, but they are probably gonna have some damn fine boxes now :D

What is IR Blasting? My crappy cable box has that and I thought it was something to do with the IR signal from the remote being amplified so it could control both the TV and the cable box from the same distances.

[Dean @ Sep 27th 2007 1:20PM]

ir blasting is where a device sends an infrared signal to another device to control it like a remote i.e. a slingbox uses an irblaster to control a satelite receiver or a cable box. (to change channels on the other unit)

[Stephen Lang @ Sep 27th 2007 12:39PM]

Martinis for all!

[jblock @ Sep 28th 2007 10:35AM]

For the interested, there's a very interesting, very substantive interview with Blake Krikorian on Sling Community...
http://www.slingcommunity.com/article/24591/Blake-Krikorian-Talks/