Report: Sling Media co-founders, other top execs leave

Sling Media, the company that enables users to push their cable shows to their laptops from anywhere in the world, has seen a management shakeup, according to a published report.

The company's co-founders Blake and Jason Krikorian are leaving as are execs Jason Hirschhorn and Ben White, according to the blog PaidContent.

According to the report, Sling Media's senior executives agreed to stay a year following the company's acquisition by EchoStar for about $380 million. The year is up and it appears that the Sling's entrepreneurial leadership is walking away.

They may leaving at just the right time. The competition to supply video content on mobile devices is white hot and Sling has to contend with such rivals as Hulu, YouTube, Major League Baseball, Apple, and dozens of other distributors.

Sling's strength is supplying the hardware (and software players) to connect to your home equipment. It is not to compete with content providers such as Hulu.

[29er]

If sites like Hulu and YouTube continue to add content, and MLB, Apple and other groups make content readily available online then what will the point be in having a piece of hardware at your house sending out the same content?

[jeffhesser]

Agreed. there are a lot of wanna-be sling competitors out there but after trying some of the cheaper alternatives (HAVA and pinnacle) I have to say there is a reason Sling is the company to beat. I am especially torn as I want something to get my TV to my iphone but Sling seems to be the only ones with a really professionaly developed looking solution. i can't wait!

[whclevelandjr]

Agreed. In fact, sling.com seem to do nothing more than serve up Hulu videos (badly BTW). I wish sling media would quit distracting themselves, and concentrate on getting the OS X version of the viewer up to parity with the Windows version.

If I wanted to go to a web portal, I would just go straight to Hulu. If I wanted to watch my personal videos anywhere in the world, I should want to use Sling Media Viewer.

[celticbrewer]

29er- That's not what sling is anymore. Dish network owns it and they're using it to move your DVR and Dish content to other devices in the house and to your internet accessible items away from the house.

Look at the Vip922 DVR that was at CES. 'A 1TB DVR with integrated sling. That's the future of sling and reason why echo bought it. They're not trying to compete with Hulu and the likes.

[lightningrob]

> push their cable shows

Cable? I thought that was obsolete. (Oops, sorry apartment dwellers :)

[camman2003]

Weird, I live in an apartment and I have DirecTV. Oh I guess you just like to over-generalize like most people on here.

K, I'm gonna go watch my satellite TV in my apartment now.

[ktaylor100]

Agreed!