Adobe announces new Media Player

April 11, 2008 – Adobe has announced the immediate availability of its new Adobe Media Player 1.0 software, a customisable and cross-platform media player that provides playback of streamed, downloaded or locally-stored video in the Adobe Flash format.

The media player is part of the Adobe AIR ecosystem and according to the company is designed to provide new ways for viewers to discover and interact with their favourite content, while providing revenue and brand-building opportunities for publishers.  Broadcasters and content providers such as CBS, MTV Networks and Universal Music Group have worked with Adobe to provide a range of television programming and video content to viewers.

“With Adobe Media Player, we’re bringing viewers and content owners closer together, with an experience that doesn’t constrain them by platform or proprietary software application,” said John Loiacono, Senior Vice President of Creative Solutions at Adobe.  “It’s a merger of TV Guide and DVR for Internet video content.  Some great shows, like The Hills from MTV and CSI from CBS, are already available to view and more will be coming soon.”

The Adobe Media Player can deliver display resolutions of 1080p, 720p or 480i, and users can subscribe to television shows and other online video content and then automatically receive new episodes of the shows as they become available; a searchable catalogue of shows from media companies and networks is available for viewers to discover new content with, and this is expected to be expanded on an ongoing basis.

The player also offers content owners new types of offline monetisation of their content, including viewer-centric dynamic advertising for targeted marketing campaigns, and the ability to customise the look and feel of the player to match the brand or theme of the video content.  It can also provide content publishers with anonymous measurement of content usage data, such as when and how often a video has been viewed, as well as supporting protection options such as protected streaming, advertising protection and video DRM protection.

The Adobe Media Player is available immediately as a free download for Windows and Macintosh platforms here