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In an effort to promote its higher speed -- and higher cost -- Wideband cable internet service, Time Warner Cable said late Tuesday it will subsidize the full $300 cost of the Slingbox device. The rebates will be made available to customers beginning next month.

The offer seems to be an about face for cable companies like Time Warner, who had up until recently an antagonistic relationship with devices like the Slingbox. Since the set-top device allows a user to view content from just about anywhere it was seen as a threat to selling more cable subscriptions.

Content owners and broadcast networks hated it too: it was cutting into their own online content businesses. But that has since changed.

Time Warner and other cable companies are now looking to expand their own presence online, whether it be through streaming or app-based like the iPad apps. This has caused some issues.

Indeed, Time Warner's iPad app is the subject of some legal wrangling with media conglomerate Viacom. The media companies say the cable companies' apps stream their content without any type of agreement allowing it to do so.

Offering the Slingbox may be one way that Time Warner and others could avoid this issue. Since the streaming is initiated by the consumer and is only for private use, it could be considered "fair use."

This is why the Slingbox and other "place shifting" technologies have been found legal.