NBC Sports has announced it will be moving all its HD video-streaming feeds to the latest build of Microsoft’s Silverlight, including the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.
The broadcaster will use Silverlight 3 across all its HD sports broadcasts, and committed to Microsoft after testing “many different technologies”, says Perkins Miller, senior vice president of Digital Media at NBC Sports, via VB.
NBC Sports used Silverlight for the stunning HD feeds of the Summer Olympics in China last year, and this year used Silverlight to stream over 35 hours of Wimbeldon tennis coverage.
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According to figures from Omniture SiteCatalyst, the MSNBC web site had its largest ever monthly video streams in June, thanks mostly to the massive popularity of Michael Jackson and his passing and a feature on President Barack Obama.
The site had over 153 million online-video streams for the month, a 14 percent increase from the site’s previous record, set in October 2008, before the Presidential election. MSNBC says over 14 percent of the streams are accountable to Michael Jackson related videos, following his death on June 25th. According to the press release, “NBC’s “Inside the Obama White House” provided an exclusive look at what happens throughout the White House and the West Wing during a day in the life of the Obama administration,” and saw strong viewership as well.
The results look promising for NBC and parent company General Electric which saw a 49 percent profit decline year-on-year for the Q2.
The site expects a strong July as well, as the MJ memorial brought in over 15 million video streams alone.
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Sony America and NBC Universal have jointly announced a new deal that will bring NBCU movie and TV content to the PlayStation Network.
The content will be available for download via the PSN on the PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles. The new addition brings PSN’s content total to 1300 movies and 4500 TV episodes.
Sony says there are 9 million registered PSN users in the US, and over 20 million worldwide.
There will be new releases available as well as catalog titles and NBCU specifically noted that hit shows such as “The Office“, “Heroes” and “Battlestar Galactica” would be available.
Prices vary on whether you want SD or HD-quality video.
