Adobe Brings Flash to TV and Mobile Video Launches in DC

Adobe has long been seen as the market leader in video on the web, with its Flash player seeing such a large install base. Now, Adobe is looking to bring Flash support to TVs and set-top-boxes, initially bringing widgets for displaying data like stocks or weather info, similar to the Yahoo Widget Engine implementation on some Sony TVs. It seems to me that this might be the first volley by Adobe at shoehorning itself into as many devices as possible, making Flash a defacto standard for video both on the web and on TV. One of our guests, Brad Linder of Liliputing, sees it as purely the way Adobe has sold it, since TVs already have enough TV content, and content providers are scared of splitting their broadcast revenues. On the other hand, as Brian Heater of PC Mag points out, Adobe has signed some notable content partners, including Disney, which might make an interesting match for on-demand content.

Also on the show, and in the TV world, Washington, D.C. has become the first city to roll out the new mobile DTV standard for broadcasting. The new service, unlike other subscription services from cell carriers, is free to watch and doesn't use data networks of any sort. That's great and everything, but mobile TV isn't exactly new, nor is it a high demand feature for our panel. Do you think you'd like mobile video? Or is it a product in search of a market?