Adobe Launches Media Player

Written by Steve Donohue

Wednesday, April 9. 2008 at 09:35 AM EDT Post a comment

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Adobe Systems took the wraps off of Adobe Media Player Wednesday morning, pitching the online video product to thousands of consumers that download its other software products each day.

Users can download version 1.0 of Adobe Media Player from Adobe.

As we reported here last week, Adobe has cut deals with about 30 TV networks and other video content suppliers for Adobe Media Player, including CBS, Scripps Networks, and MTV Networks. The software giant receives a cut of advertising revenue from the free video content, but executives wouldn’t detail the exact split.

While forcing consumers to download software in order to watch videos from Adobe Media Player puts Adobe at a disadvantage compared to Hulu.com and other online video sites that run video through Internet browsers, Adobe executives say the software, once downloaded, also gives the company a key advantage.

“It’s harder to get people to install [software]. However once it’s installed that’s very powerful -- you’re sitting on somebody’s desktop,” says Adobe senior product manager Ashley Still.

About 30,000 to 40,000 people downloaded the beta version of Adobe Media Player, which debuted last fall and wasn’t marketed, Still says.

Adobe Media Player will get a big marketing push, beginning Wednesday, when Web surfers visit Adobe’s Website. Still says it is not unusual for 1 million people to download software from Adobe.com each day, and that Adobe will bundle Adobe Media Player in Adobe Acrobat Reader and other software.

Adobe isn’t selling any advertising for the programming itself. Its program suppliers sell all of the advertising, and the ads are populated on Adobe Media Player through RSS feeds, Still says.

Adobe Media Player allows users to subscribe to their favorite TV series, and some of the programs are automatically downloaded to their computers once new episodes are available.

Web surfers can also use Adobe Media Player to watch some videos from YouTube and other Websites that allow users to subscribe to RSS feeds.

About half of the content suppliers are also allowing Adobe Media Player users to download their videos to PCs, and watch their programs while offline, Still says. But CBS and MTV Networks -- two of Adobe’s largest suppliers -- aren’t allowing Web surfers to store programs on their computers for offline viewing.

Adobe also launched its own new programming service, Adobe TV, a network on Adobe Media Player that contains instructional videos about Adobe software products.