Late yesterday, Echostar, the third largest pay-TV provider in the United States, announced that it is to purchase Sling Media in a cash and options deal which values the company at $380 million.

Sling Media is best know for its SlingBox, a place-shifting device which connects to a home’s TV signal (cable box, digital tuner or PVR) and then ’slings’ that signal over a broadband connection to either a PC or cell phone, or in theory, any Internet connected device that can run the SlingPlayer software. More recently, however, the company formed its Sling Entertainment Group to develop a variety of software-based services including the controversial Clip+Sling. Last week, it was reported that Sling had partnered with DirectTV to provide the software behind its newly launched out-of-market NFL Internet streaming offering.

Video platform Blip.tv announced today that the company will now host and serve past and future episodes of the long-running video podcast Rocketboom, as well as sell advertising on the show.

Talking up the partnership on the company’s official blog, CEO Mike Hudack, not only claimed that watching an early episode of Rocketboom was, in part, the inspiration behind starting Blip.tv — but also that, following specific demands from the show’s co-creator and producer, Andrew Baron, the company has pioneered Flash-like overlay ads that run in QuickTime. “We believe it’s the first of its kind”, writes Hudack. The result is that versions of the show that are created for desktop video players — including, and most importantly, iTunes, as well as the excellent Miro — will be able to feature the same interactive overlay ads found on their Flash equivalents. The first of the new overlays is for Comedy Central’s Sarah Silverman show.

More Internet TV action this week from one of the major networks. The LA Times reports that, as of today, Fox Broadcasting is giving away free downloads of season premiere episodes of seven its shows on the U.S. version of the iTunes Store.

Only recently, CBS Chief Executive Les Moonves said that he viewed iTunes “as much as a promotional vehicle… as a financial vehicle”. It seems that Fox may have a similar opinion.

From the LA Times:

The Fox-Apple deal is designed to expose iPod users to the upcoming season of new and returning prime-time shows. Executives with the News Corp.-owned network hope that free downloads of such shows as “Prison Break,” “Bones,” “American Dad” and “K-Ville” will entice viewers to watch later installments on TV or pay to download them from the iTunes store.

I recently wrote that such moves by the major networks provided evidence of a new strategy in which syndication and getting content onto as many different online platforms as possible was replacing central distribution.

However, Tim Hanlon, a consultant quoted in the Times piece, puts it even better:

“What we are seeing is a rather messy and inelegant fumbling into the future of video distribution.”

Messy, inelegant and fumbling. Perfect.

Ed Burns, the actor, writer, director, and now comic book author, considers his best film to be a small, talky, comedy/drama that has “absolutely no audience” theatrically but just might find its home elsewhere — on iTunes.

“We got a couple of half-assed theatrical offers,” said Burns, who was interviewed by Premium Hollywood about the film “Purple Violets.” With his last few movies Burns took the theatrical route and was disappointed that they were shown in cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco but not elsewhere.

With “Purple Violets”, Burns is showing the movie at film festivals but releasing it “theatrically” through iTunes.

“So, we’re gambling,” Burns said, who is best known as an actor in “Saving Private Ryan”, “Confidence”, and “Life or Something Like It” and as a writer-director in “The Brothers McMullen.”