On Monday, EchoStar announced it was acquiring place-shifting company Sling Media for $380 million. Although many people expected Sling Media to be acquired, it seems many were shocked that it happened so soon.

Sling was one a pioneer place-shifting company, makers of the Slingbox. The device connects to the TV/cable box/DVR and lets users watch their TV shows anywhere there’s a broadband connection. A new feature, called Clip and Sling, allows users to create clips of their favorite TV shows and share them with friends.
The relationship between EchoStar and Sling go back a few years since EchoStar was an early investor. And teaming with Echostar means that Sling now has  deeper pockets. Says GigaOm:

Sling has established a nice brand, but in order to grow further the company needs deep pockets of a corporate master.

Meanwhile, EchoStar just asked the Internal Revenue Service if it can separate its technology and infrastructure assets by forming a spin off. The Sling acquisition will fall into the spinout.

You may also recall that EchoStar is in the middle of a lawsuit with Tivo. Tivo filed a lawsuit against EchoStar in 2004 saying that the operator of the satellite-based DISH Network, was infringing on its DVR patent.

Overall, I’d bet that Tivo is miffed now that EchoStar owns Sling. A combination of Tivo and Sling would have been a killer combination since many customers already own both a Tivo DVR and a Slingbox.

So some questions:

• Will EchoStar continue to allow Sling’s place-shifting from non-EchoStar devices?
• Will innovation be stifled at Sling now that it’s owned by a major provider?
• Will Sling move to a more ad-based model?