LAS VEGAS — Sling Media‘s Slingbox is best know for helping customers in America’s patchwork TV ecosystem access their home TV setup whilst traveling in other states.
But, just as the digital TV industry is realizing many mobile TV viewers actually don’t watch whilst “mobile”, Sling, too, is beginning to put greater focus on at-home TV slinging.
“While Sling has always been known for taking your content and giving you access outside of the home on your mobile device, we’ve seen a lot of our customers use Sling inside the home on the living room television,” communications director Brian Jacquet tells Beet.TV.
“Whether that is using the iPad app to find the show they want to watch and quickly using the tab a remote control, or using (Sling via) Roku and Apple TV to bring living room television to another location, wherever they’re sitting (in the house).
“That’s a big theme of ours – starting to have a much larger role in the living room. You’ll see us make a number of announcements on that track.”
Such moves are ironic since most “mobile TV” strategies had imagined out-of-home viewing dominating. What the industry is coming to realize is that, for many viewers, “TV” is specifically at-home leisure time, regardless of the room or screen in which it’s consumed.
An upgrade to Slingbox’s Slingplayer app in November introduced including social streams for live viewing companionship.
