NBC seems to be having a change of heart this week. The network recently wrapped up their streaming of the Olympics using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology. However if you tuned in for this week’s NFL season opener, NBC was using Adobe’s Flash technology instead of Silverlight. Making some do a double take, here’s a look at why NBC left Silverlight in a flash (pun intended).
As we stated, NBC took a chance on Silverlight to stream the Olympic ceremonies for online and mobile viewers. While this was a great opportunity for Microsoft to promote its Silverlight platform, it wasn’t enough for NBC. According to SAI,
“Microsoft, meanwhile, said that during the Olympics, 40 million US to visitors NBCOlympics.com didn’t yet have Silverlight installed.”
NBC has already begun switching back to Adobe Flash for the start of the NFL season. Yet their efforts don’t seem to be paying off at the moment with reports of video playback for the NFL season starter game being too horrible to watch.
Not a Good Look
We all know that at least 90% of computer users have Adobe Flash installed. It’s easy to see why NBC would want to switch back. The partnership between Microsoft and NBC was likely more beneficial to Microsoft in the end. One of the downsides for NBC was that users tend to become either wary or lazy about downloading new extensions for a website. This is especially true if the website was working just fine with previous extensions only days before. However, with a rocky start to switching back, NBC online sports fans are probably wondering if it’s even worth the effort anymore.
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