Sling Readies Video Portal

Sling Media is rolling out the private beta of its Sling.com web video portal. According to an email to the Sling beta team, obtained by TechCrunch:

Sling.com is a new online video portal that will give users access to a premier library of content from top TV networks, movie studios, sports leagues and websites. Combining professional programming, editorial expertise and social networking features alongside easy and logical navigation.

The email goes on to say that the site will feature premium content from 60 partners and will include a preview of the Slingplayer for PCs, which allows users to watch live TV from the Sling.com web site. Announced at CES earlier this year, Sling will let users create clips and upload them to Sling.com, as well as create playlists that can be shared with the Sling community.

The Clip+Sling feature that lets users grab clips up to five minutes in length and post them was not present in the SlingPlayer 2.0 in August, due to legal hold ups. But paidContent spoke with a Sling spokesperson who confirmed that the feature is coming.

While Clip+Sling seems like a cool idea, will it and a video portal be enough to attract new customers? Creating a clip is cool, but I can do that through Hulu (and possibly Onecast one day?). And there are already a ton of video portals offering (the same) premium content — it just seems like a distraction for Sling to have to manage all of the logistics associated with acquiring and coordinating the rights to all that content.

But, despite the fact that putting together a content portal ain’t easy, perhaps Sling will be able to create a more compelling experience because it controls the set-top box experience as well.