Adobe Media Player Debuts For Online?And Offline?Viewing; Video From CBS, MTVN, UMG, More

A year after Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) announced the third part of its Flash Triple Play, the company has released Adobe Media Player 1.0?the standalone desktop player meant for online and offline use. With Flash as a major browser and mobile presence, Adobe is now trying to claim desktop space mixed with a revenue model for itself and content publishers. The online-offline capabilities?it's the first time users can download Flash outside the browser (with Adobe's permission)?make AMP a potential stand out if the technology delivers, major video producers buy in and users accept advertising or branding as a "price" for portable video.

Launch participants include CBS (NYSE: CBS) (with full episodes ofCSI:NY), MTV Networks (NYSE: VIA), Universal Music Group, PBS, CondéNet, and Scripps (NYSE: SSP) Networks. The mix of content includes full episodes, clips and music videos. Revenue possibilities include targeted marketing, dynamic advertising and player customization.

The player, which works on Windows and Mac, can be downloaded here. Features include:

-- playback in in 1080p, 720p or 480i video with advanced audio.-- Subscriptions to TV shows and other video both via catalog (Adobe describes it as a cross between TV Guide and a DVR) and other RSS feeds. But downloads can only take place if the player is active.-- Content publishers can get "anonymous measurement of content usage data, such as when and how often a video has been viewed." AMP also will support protected streaming, advertising protection and video DRM.

RSS under the hood Some context from Deeje Cooley, Adobe's Internet TV evangelist: "Underneath the hood, Adobe MP is a video RSS aggregator tuned for Flash media. The UI has been designed specifically for on-demand TV-watching use cases, and with specific features for content creators like branding, advertising, measurement, and protection. ... With RSS, the general notion of manually receiving content is eliminated, and the details of the media type is masked. Users shouldn't be bothered with these details? they just want new episodes of their favorite TV shows, and it should just play beautifully on-demand."

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