Consumer electronics products company Sling Media Inc, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Nasdaq-listed EchoStar Corporation, launched its Slingbox place shifting product range in Hyderabad on Wednesday, the third city in the country since it introduced the product recently.
Slingbox, which makes it simple to watch and control live TV content from a cable box, satellite receiver, digital video recorder or video camera on any remote device such as a mobile phone, PC, laptop or tablet located anywhere in the world via a broadband Internet connection, is being currently sold by the company across 22 countries. It has over one million users globally.
“We chose to launch the product in India as 3G concept is gaining ground. A bulk of Slingbox users are mobile users. India ranks fourth in terms of mobile content consumption,” Mr Raman Venkatachar, general manager (India Operations), told media persons.
The company, in the initial phase of the domestic roll-out, will focus on six cities, including Bangalore, Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune.
Slingbox fits neatly into a consumer's existing TV and network infrastructure. All that is required is a video source providing TV-based entertainment. A broadband network or a 3G connection is required if the Slingbox is used to view the video source from outside the customer's home.
“We are currently in talks with Reliance and Airtel to bundle the Slimbox range with their direct-to-home (DTH) platforms,” Mr Venkatachar said.
Slingbox PRO-HD and Slimbox 120 are available in India at Rs 14,999 and Rs 7,999 respectively.