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Bye Bye Microsoft WMV, Bye Bye Real, Hello Flash Video And Extra Views

Home » Bye Bye Microsoft WMV, Bye Bye Real, Hello Flash Video And Extra Views

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.”

6 responses to “Bye Bye Microsoft WMV, Bye Bye Real, Hello Flash Video And Extra Views”

  1. Joe Rinehart Avatar
    Joe Rinehart

    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.

  2. Ben Forta Avatar
    Ben Forta

    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

  3. jfish Avatar
    jfish

    And the clincher, of course, is this little winner: "causing video views to double". Now, that speaks volumes.

  4. Sid Wing Avatar
    Sid Wing

    Now if we could just get flash video to work on the daggone CrackBerry – I’d be much happier 🙂

  5. chris hough Avatar
    chris hough

    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.

  6. Tom Chiverton Avatar
    Tom Chiverton

    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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