There’s news out of Sling Media today, and since I don’t work for the company (unlike Dave), I feel perfectly justified in covering it. :)
Sling is collaborating with DirecTV on a new offering called Supercast, which brings online streams of NFL games to the Web every Sunday. Subscribers to the DirecTV/NFL SuperFan package can access these streams for free, though it appears you will only get access to the games available in your geographic region. (Hmmm– isn’t “placeshifting” the whole idea behind Sling?) Sling designed the SuperCast interface (further updates promised soon) and is hosting the service for DirecTV. More details direct from Dave on the Sling Community forum.
What’s extremely interesting about this news is that it represents the first time Sling has ventured beyond the hardware biz into direct content delivery. The new service does not require a Slingbox or Sling software. And, in working with DirecTV, Sling shows new media and old media distribution are growing ever closer. Maybe there are more partnerships to come?
One other note about the news from a satellite-vs.-cable point of view: it looks like the battles over sports content are not going to die down any time soon. What’s next? Is Comcast going to bring Donovan McNabb on door-to-door sales calls?