The inexorable transition of television programming to mobile devices moved forward another step on Tuesday when EchoStar subsidiary Sling Media unveiled a new SlingPlayer mobile app specifically for the Android Honeycomb version 3.0 tablets.
The app, like of all Sling Media’s mobile apps, costs $29.99 and requires the Slingbox SOLO or PRO-HD, the company’s popular set-top devices that allow users to stream TV to a variety of devices over broadband WiFi or 3G.
“A Slingbox is the perfect accessory to an Android tablet,” said Raghu Tarra, senior vice president and general manager at Sling Media, in a press release announcing the new app. “When combined with SlingPlayer, now anyone with an Android device can enjoy a beautiful, personalized TV experience anywhere in the world.”
Previously, Android tablet owners had to suffice with using the SlingPlayer app designed for Android mobile phones, which hit the Android Marketplace this summer and offers the same service at lower resolution. The new Android tablet app has been well received in the first day of its release, with a four-and-a-half star average rating from 3,603 reviews at the time of this posting.
SlingPlayer has been available for the same price on iPad since November 2010 and for the iPhone since 2009.
Sling’s move marks the latest blow against cable content provider Viacom, which earlier this year sued cable companies Cablevision and Time Warner Cable over their own TV streaming iPad apps.
Viacom, which owns MTV and Paramount, argues that a mobile streaming app “violates its agreement to distribute Viacom programing only on cable TV systems,” as Reuters paraphrased its stance.
Yet, there’s seemingly little that Viacom can do to stop cable content’s migration to the internet and mobile devices, a fact that did not go unnoticed by Time Warner Cable.
In August, Time Warner Cable announced it would begin offering the Slingbox to customers with a full rebate for the device’s price of $300 as part of a bundle pack for cable subscribers who sign up for Time Warner Cable’s $99-a-month Wideband Internet service. The move was deemed by bloggers to be a smart and cost-effective business move by Time Warner Cable and a formidable direct counterpunch to Viacom, proving that major cable providers are willing to do whatever it takes to offer content to customers wherever they want it.
A Sling adapter is also available for $99 from satellite TV provider Dish Network, which was split off from Sling Media’s parent company, Echostar, in January 2008. Echostar acquired Sling Media for $380 million in 2007.
And now that SlingPlayer apps are available on all the major mobile platforms, it looks as if the company’s service is poised for more growth.
We’ve reached out to Sling Media and Viacom for further information about how the move affects their businesses and will update when we receive a response. Until then, check out this video preview of the SlingPlayer Android tablet app in action: