Sling Media announced it has significantly expanded its distribution channels for the award-winning Slingbox, having added 14 leading retailers in the United States since originally launching nationally with Best Buy and CompUSA in July. The combination of retail partners includes leading national online powerhouses Amazon.com, Newegg.com, Target.com and Walmart.com as well as brick and mortar consumer electronics superstores Circuit City, Micro Center and RadioShack. The Slingbox is available immediately for an MSRP of $249.99 from any one of these retail partners.

"From the beginning our distribution strategy has been to cast a wide net with world-class distribution partners that know how to communicate the Slingbox experience to their customers," said Blake Krikorian, co-founder and CEO of Sling Media. "We are delighted to add the wide combination of retail partners who will play a critical role in our success as we head into the holiday buying season."

The Slingbox is a breakthrough consumer electronics product that enables consumers to watch their living room TV programming from wherever they are by turning virtually any Internet-connected Windows-based laptop or desktop PC into a personal TV. The Slingbox redirects, or "placeshifts," a single live TV stream from a cable box, satellite receiver, or digital video recorder (DVR) to the viewer's PC -- located anywhere in the home or anywhere in the world, via the Internet.

In addition to the retail partners listed above, the Slingbox can also be found at leading retailers ebuyer.com, eCOST.com, Datavision, J&R, PC Connection and RCS as well as Sling Media's own online store at http://www.slingmedia.com/.

"Sling Media has done an excellent job in signing on top notch brick and mortar and online retailers ahead of the ever-important holiday shopping season," said Stephen Baker, vice president, industry analysis for NPD Group. "The Slingbox is poised to be a breakthrough holiday product and Sling Media will need to rely on its retail partners to help drive awareness and educate the consumer market."

Since its debut in June, the Slingbox has met with critical acclaim from major personal technology reviewers, including columnists for The Wall Street Journal, CNET.com, The Financial Times, Network World and LAPTOP Magazine, among others. The Slingbox has also received numerous industry awards across multiple categories, including innovation, engineering and design. Sling Media most recently received a "Breakthrough Innovation" award from Popular Mechanics and was recently named to the 2005 Pulver 100, the VoIP industry's premier listing of privately held growth companies representing the future of the communications ecosystem. The Slingbox received a five out of five rating from Computer Power User and was named the "must-have" gadget of 2005 and the company received a Mobile Innovations Award from LAPTOP Magazine and was named as a "must-have" product on TechLiving Magazine's 2005 HOT LIST.