Amazon Considering Online Pay-TV Service

online.wsj.com

15 points·a_olt··7 comments

This is an unlikely move. The cable companies and broadcast networks have pretty much killed every effort for a straight streamed internet based TV services. Including a very costly failure by Intel (ironically just purchased by today by Verizon who may have a chance because of their existing content deals)

http://www.theverge.com/2014/1/21/5330172/intel-tv-project-v...

From Ars Technica @ http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/01/amazon-may-spawn-liv...

> Update: Amazon spokesperson Drew Herdener has denied the WSJ's report, saying that Amazon is "not planning to license television channels or offer a pay-TV service,” according to Seattle Times Business Reporter Jay Greene.

An excellent move by Amazon. This is something I've been waiting for. I hope it becomes a reality though...

Buy a Slingbox, you don't need to wait. You can stream live TV to all your devices today. The one I bought in 2005 is currently sitting in my father's house, so that he can watch his home TV from the back office of his store when there are no customers.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingbox

> SlingPlayer is not available for Linux, BSD or other open source systems

Polling the HN hivemind: what are the best alternatives that do support Linux and BSD?

You can watch your Slingbox on the web on Linux, as that wiki page says in the Linux section. There's just no native app.

http://slingplayer.slingbox.com/embedded/slingplayer.php

Thanks for the tip!

The last time I tried, the standard player didn't work because it depended on their OS-specific native libraries. It's good to know that there's an alternative now.

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