Slingbox Slings Up to Canada

Sling Media announces they've made available to Canadians their widely popular device which "placeshifts" a TV stream from the home to a PC remotely connected to the Internet.

Sling Media yesterday said they’d officially started sales of their popular Slingbox in Canada. The Slingbox will cost $299 CAD.

The Slingbox, said Sling Media, will be available across Canada in retailers such as Best Buy, Future Shop and London Drugs, as well as online. Sling Media is working together with Keating Technologies, a sales, marketing and support outsourcer and Ingram Micro, a Canadian distributor, to launch the Slingbox in the Canadian market. The Slingbox redirects, or “placeshifts,” a single live TV stream from a basic cable connection, cable box, satellite receiver or digital video recorder (DVR) to the viewer’s PC — located anywhere in the home or anywhere in the world, via the Internet.

Sling Media is also introducing into Canada the SlingLink, a powerline Ethernet adapter solution that connects a Slingbox to a home network for customers whose TV and Internet connections are located in different rooms in the house. This will be available through the same channels for $129 CAD.

Finally, Sling Media is making available their SlingPlayer Mobile software, which gives Slingbox customers the ability to watch and control their home TV from any handheld computer or smartphone based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system, as a free download for registered Canadian Slingbox customers. “Starting April 26th,” said the company, “the software will cost $29.99 USD and includes a free 30 day trial. However, all Slingbox owners who buy and register a Slingbox prior to April 26th receive a free license for the final production version of the SlingPlayer Mobile software.”

“We’ve had a strong response from Canadian consumers from the moment we launched our product in June 2005 and we are very pleased to finally enter the market today,” said Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media, in a statement. “The Slingbox will transform the way Canadians watch television and combined with our SlingPlayer Mobile software, Canadians will also have the ability to access their home TV using a variety of handhelds and smartphones.”