Science & Technology
Science and Technology
Science and Technology
Tue, November 18, 2008
Mon, November 17, 2008
MLB.com Selects the Adobe Flash Platform
SAN FRANCISCO--([ BUSINESS WIRE ])--MLB.com, the official website of Major League Baseball, and Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced a two-year agreement in which MLB.com has selected the Adobe® Flash® Platform to deliver all of its live and on-demand video offerings beginning in 2009. In addition, MLB.com will provide a downloadable rich Internet application (RIA) built using Adobe AIR™, so baseball fans can access additional features outside the Web browser.
MLB.com streams live every Major League spring training, regular season and postseason game, more than 2,500 annually, via its out-of-market subscription product, which has seen more than 1.5 million total subscribers since its debut on Opening Day 2003. Since that time, fans have accessed more than 1.8 billion streams of live and on-demand multimedia offerings on MLB.com, representing nearly 200 million hours of participation. By the end of 2008, MLB.com will once again stream nearly 12,000 live video events, including Major League Baseball games and thousands of events for its various business partners.
"Baseball is the nation's favorite pastime with millions of fans watching the games each season," said Jim Guerard, vice president and general manager of Dynamic Media at Adobe. "With Adobe Flash solutions for playback and live video streaming plus Adobe AIR to experience statistics and highlights outside the browser, we are delivering unprecedented access to every game in the baseball season, and redefining how baseball fans experience their sport."
MLB.com Adopts the Industry's Most Popular Technology for Web Video
Adobe Flash Player — already installed on more than 98 percent of Internet-connected desktops — will enable fans to view the games, helping MLB.com reach the largest possible Internet audience on virtually all major platforms and browsers. Adobe Flash Media Server software will be the video streaming engine behind the games, enabling fans to view high-quality live video on the Web. According to comScore Media Metrix, 81 percent of online videos viewed worldwide are delivered using Adobe Flash technology, making it the No. 1 format for video on the Web.
Throughout the 2008 season, MLB.com continued to develop and integrate new features into its live streaming product. Among those offerings were: selecting the home or away feed for every game; presenting NexDef™, a standard definition television quality picture at 1.2 megabits per second in a 16x9 widescreen format; and enhancing the Emmy Award-winning Mosaic application.
"We are excited about this partnership as Adobe provides the scalability, flexibility and reliability that fans expect from MLB.com in delivering them the best live streaming product possible," said Bob Bowman, CEO, MLB.com. "With the ability to stream broadcast-quality video over the Internet and access a new desktop experience, baseball fans will have more options than ever to watch their favorite teams and players online."
About MLB.com
Established in June 2000 following a unanimous vote by the 30 Major League Baseball club owners to centralize all of Baseball's Internet operations, MLB Advanced Media LP (MLBAM) is the interactive media and internet company of Major League Baseball. MLBAM manages the official league site, [ www.MLB.com ], and each of the 30 individual Club sites to create the most comprehensive Major League Baseball resource on the Internet. MLB.com offers fans the most complete baseball information and interactivity on the web, including up-to-date statistics, game previews and summaries, extensive historical information, online ticket sales, baseball merchandise, authenticated memorabilia and collectibles, fantasy games, live full-game video webcasts and on-demand highlights, live and archived audio broadcasts of every game, Game day pitch-by-pitch application, around-the-clock hosted and specialty video programming and complete blogging capabilities. MLB.com offers more live events on the Internet than any other website in the world.
About Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobe revolutionizes how the world engages with ideas and information – anytime, anywhere and through any medium. For more information, visit [ www.adobe.com ].
© 2008 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Flash, AIR are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
