• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, December 1, 2006

In a major coup, Sling Media has brought on ex-MTV digital executives Jason Hirschhorn and Benjamin White to lead its newly formed media entertainment group. Until now, Sling Media was known only for its place-shifting device, the Slingbox, which allows users to watch cable and satellite TV on their laptops and cell phones.

Hirschhorn and White--as the group's president and chief creative officer--will now pursue partnerships with those content creators, distributors and advertisers in the traditional and digital space seeking broader engagement with consumers.

"We're taking what Slingbox already does to another level," said Hirschhorn, who in May left his position as chief digital officer of MTV Networks, where he was responsible for digital media businesses and interactive strategy. "Our focus is to bring the less interactive to the highly interactive, and make it a completely unified experience."

The Sling Media Entertainment Group will be based in New York City, where Hirschhorn and White will report directly to Sling Media co-founder and CEO Blake Krikorian.

Sling Media plans to develop new software and hardware-based applications and services enabled by the Slingbox's marriage of TV and interactive online devices. Details on those applications and services--and the content and ad partners involved--will likely be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show taking place in Las Vegas next month, said Hirschhorn.

After leaving MTV, Hirschhorn started a digital consultancy named TripleH Media Advisors, but soon decided that the consulting business wasn't for him. "It's not what I wanted to do, so when Blake approached me with the offer, I didn't even think about it." Hirschhorn was named to the position of chief digital officer of MTV Networks after serving as senior vice president of digital music and media, where he managed the online operations of MTV, MTV2, VH1, CMT, mtvU, Comedy Central and Spike.

Before his appointment, White was vice president of digital media at MTV, where he managed the brand's digital business including programming, production and product development. Most recently, he oversaw the launch of MTV's broadband network, Overdrive. "Jason and Ben were some of the key leaders behind MTV's expansion into the online world and the combination of their experience and forward thinking adds a powerful new dimension to Sling Media," Blake Krikorian, co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Sling Media, said in a statement.

Why the unexpected decision to leave MTV this summer--at a time when the Viacom company's digital push was in full swing? "I was always an entrepreneur, as was Ben," he said. "I never thought I was going to be at MTV for seven years. It was a great seven years, but at the end of the day, it's about personal growth and being an innovator."