Sprint Nextel revealed it is talking to place-shifting companies like SlingMedia in an effort to offer a wide variety of entertainment services. Smart move. I think operators are beginning to realize that a variety of these types of services are going to continue to pop up, and they can't squash them all. In fact, you have to believe that offering as many services as possible will actually spur adoption of other multimedia services and increase the sale of data plans. Article [1]
Links:
[1] http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/344/C8038/