I previously mentioned the BBC adopting AIR for widgets, but this little nugget in the paidContent story is worth highlighting:
“In October [the BBC] signed a technology deal with Adobe to adopt its Flash [for video]… finally axing Microsoft’s WMV and Real’s video formats in favour of embedded [Flash] video, causing video views to double.”
Bye Bye Microsoft WMV, Bye Bye Real, Hello Flash Video And Extra Views
6 responses to “Bye Bye Microsoft WMV, Bye Bye Real, Hello Flash Video And Extra Views”
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I’m glad they’ve made this switch. With the increase in Mac sales, you’d have to be mad to only offer video in WMV or Real. WMP on a Mac is a joke, and I wouldn’t let RealPlayer near any machine, Mac or PC.
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Joe, I’ve not allowed Real on my machines in years, and commented on that several years ago:
http://www.forta.com/blog/index.cfm?mode=entry&entry=A61BA19A-3048-80A9-EF900D37DF307AE2
— Ben -
And the clincher, of course, is this little winner: "causing video views to double". Now, that speaks volumes.
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Now if we could just get flash video to work on the daggone CrackBerry – I’d be much happier 🙂
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similar to joe, I am also a heavy mac user and I think the switch to flash is a much better approach. to echo both Joe and Ben, I too would never install the real player on any machine.
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I expect this was when the BBC’s online division (run by ex-MicroSoft people) finally realized that things the BBC produces *must* be usable by everyone who pays for it (just like everyone can, in theory, build a TV receiver) and brought out an online Flash-based version of the previously Windows only ‘7 days catch up’ iPlayer. In only a few months. For hardly any money. Compared to years and millions of pounds for the older system (which can’t even stream, it was more like a fancy front end to someone elses P2P system).
As I said in the post about the BBC and AIR – I really now wont be taking bets on a Flash-streaming AIR-based desktop. Adobe’s media player has already proved the platform.
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