February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
The Slingbox has recently been introduced to the marketplace by Sling Media, a company that was founded last year by two brothers, Blake and Jason Krikorian.
The Slingbox is a gold bar-shaped device that is connected to the customer’s existing cable TV box. The customer then downloads Sling software onto his or her laptop. Once this relatively straightforward process is completed, they are then able to watch their “home” TV programming on their laptop anywhere in the world, so long as there is a high-speed Internet connection.
They can control the channel as if using their home remote control and, if the connection is of sufficient speed, the visual effect will be almost indistinguishable from regular TV.
There is already considerable speculation about how this might affect companies like Ireland’s Setanta Sports that specialize in the broadcasting of domestic sporting events to an expatriate audience.
Setanta’s Irish business model basically involves the company buying overseas rights to soccer or GAA games from domestic broadcasters such as RTE. Setanta then charges fees to bar owners, for example, who wish to show the games in question on their premises. Those fees are often passed further down the line by proprietors who charge customers for entry on days when they are showing big games, such as the All Ireland football and hurling finals.
The technology pioneered by Sling appears to offer a very different model. Theoretically, a bar owner whose building had a high sped Internet connection could use the Slingbox to take coverage direct from the likes of RTE and transmit it onto a big screen on their premises. There would not appear to be any overheads involved in doing this, save for the initial $250 outlay on the Slingbox itself — and the willing co-operation of someone in Ireland with cable TV. (There are no monthly charges or maintenance fees for the Slingbox device.)
The new technology, however, could create headaches for various regulatory and copyright-protection authorities, since it seems to make the traditional model of ‘domestic’ and ‘overseas’ rights to television programming almost redundant.
The Irish Echo made several attempts to contact Niall Cogley, CEO of Setanta Sports, to discuss the potential implications of this development for his company. Those attempts had not been successful at time of going to press.
Beyond the specifics of the Setanta situation, the Slingbox has the potential to upset the plans of a number of companies worldwide that exist to provide domestic programming to various expatriate communities, especially in the U.S.
The saving grace for these companies, at least for the moment, is that the Slingbox is designed to American NTSC television standards. That means that it is useful for people with a cable subscription in the U.S. who want to watch American television overseas. It does not yet exist in the PAL and SECAM formats that are the standards in Europe. (PAL is the relevant format in Ireland.)
However, most people believe it is only a matter of time before a similar device is developed that would enable European viewers to see ‘home programming’ when they are elsewhere in the world. Transitioning between NTSC and the European formats is, in any case, not a big technological issue – converters can be bought over the counter in most electronics stores.
The Slingbox won a host of awards in its various prototype stages. Sling Media was also named by Fortune Magazine as one of 25 “2005 breakout companies.” The Slingbox has only been available to nationwide consumers since the end of June, though take-up rates are believed to be encouraging. The company’s CEO, Blake Krikorian, puts no limit on what is at stake:
“The Slingbox clearly defines a new era for television viewing,” Krikorian said. “Our goal is to enhance the television viewing experience by allowing people easy access to their living room television content, no matter their location: around the house or around the world.”
Reviews of the device have so far been largely positive, though with some reservations. The Wall Street Journal’s reviewer said he could “heartily recommend” the product. Time magazine’s website named the Slingbox its “gadget of the week” in early August, praising the ease with which the device can be set up and announcing that “if you really love your TV, Slingbox might just be your new best friend.”
But Time.Com’s reviewer also said he “wasn’t bowled over” by the picture quality produced by the Slingbox, suggesting that it was more useful for relatively ‘static’ formats, such as talk shows, than for other kinds of programming.
“You’re not going to get any pleasure watching Full Metal Jacket or The House of Flying Daggers on your Slingbox,” he wrote. “But Family Guy and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart are passable. Think ‘sitcom’ or better yet ‘animated sitcom’.”
As Internet-related technology continues its forward march these limitations may be left behind. If that happens, the way Irish programs are watched in the U.S. may change for good.