AFI BLOG: Media and Technology

The Hollywood Reporter

Adobe is set to enter the online video arena today with the launch of Adobe Media Player, loaded with content from MTV Networks, CBS, Universal Music Group and others.

Although it joins a crowded market, the service has a built-in advantage as it uses the same Flash video format employed by Google’s YouTube. It can be downloaded for free at www.adobe.com/go/mp.

The player will launch with current CBS shows “CSI: NY,” “CSI: Miami” and “Big Brother” and older titles from the network, including “Star Trek,” “Melrose Place,” “Hawaii Five-O,” “The Twilight Zone” and “MacGyver.”

Viacom’s MTV Networks will make “The Hills,” news content and “Yo! MTV Raps” available on the platform. Additional content will come from MTV, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, VH1 and other MTVN brands during the next several months.

Absent are NBC Universal and News Corp., which recently launched their Hulu joint online video venture, and Disney, which for the most part employs a strategy of keeping its content on its own Web properties.

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