Archos has entered into a strategic alliance with EchoStar to provide portable digital video recorders for the satellite broadcaster.
EchoStar Communications Corporation has invested $9 million in Archos in redeemable bonds. Archos will provide EchoStar with portable digital video recorders that allow for high-speed transfer of video directly from certain Dish Network set-top boxes.
EchoStar has more than 11 million subscribers to the Dish Network in the United States.
“We are extremely proud to work with EchoStar on such an exciting and market-changing initiative in the portable video player market,” said Henri Crohas, the founder and chief executive of Archos.
“EchoStar is taking a unique technology approach by integrating the use of our portable video players with their Dish Network set-top boxes. This agreement confirms the growing success of the Archos portable video players and recorders, and is a major new initiative for both us and EchoStar.”
Archos is known for its range of portable video players. Its latest mobile digital video recorder features a 17cm widescreen display, with up to 100GB of storage, enough for around 400 hours of MPEG-4 video. It retails at $800.
The EchoStar compatible devices are expected to be available in the coming months.