iPad

Here is a piece of terrific news news for all Dish TV customers – Dish subscribers will soon be able to watch live Dish TV on their iPads (and other mobile devices) at no extra cost. Dish will leverage Slingbox functionality to enable user access – if you remember, Dish acquired Slingbox in 2007 (many were puzzled by the move).

As a huge Sling fan I certainly welcome the news – let’s see how this pans out, you never know – I may make a switch to Dish if this turns out functioning well.

Anyhow, here is a blurb from the article published by the Associated Press (source link):

Dish Network Corp. is planning to offer the feature on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and BlackBerry devices in September and on phones using Google Inc.’s Android system in October.
Subscribers will need special hardware. One option is Sling Media Inc.’s SlingBox, which retails for $180 to $300. Dish subscribers can also pay $200 to $400 to upgrade to Dish’s high-definition digital video recorder with SlingBox features; they’ll need to pay $10 a month for multiple DVR service, but they’ll get recording capabilities with it. Sling is owned by EchoStar Corp., whose chairman is Dish CEO Charles Ergen.

The rumor of the day revolves around the article posted on Yahoo! news that Hulu might be charging the iPad users for access to its services:

A Hulu app created specifically for the iPad… and one that you have to pay for (and probably keep paying for over time, the good old cable TV model). (Think YouTube for the iPhone, but with a subscription fee attached.)

The original article can be found here.
I am not sure how this one is going to pan out – yet, if priced right (read: low) it may have a shot. On the other hand, the offering will directly compete with the same content offered via iTunes and I am sure Apple is not going to like this. Let the fun begin…