We all love this Olympics, right? Not Adobe

Here's the way things work at Microsoft: After correcting shortcomings in the first and second editions of its software, version 3.0 of a Microsoft product usually silences the company's worst critics, allowing management to get on with business of crushing rivals. But I'll be first to acknowledge that Silverlight breaks with that pattern.

Since the start of the Beijing Olympics, I've been using the Silverlight 2 beta to access video over the Internet and it works just fine. As a loyal Flash user, I was surprised when Microsoft won the deal to supply NBC with video-viewing technology for the Olympics. There was the obvious old-school tie between Microsoft and NBC dating back to their collaboration building MSNBC. Still, this was Adobe Systems' game to lose. And lose it did--big time.

In the end, Microsoft was able to convince NBC it could do more by using Silverlight than by sticking with Flash. Rob Bennett, the general manager of sports for MSN, told me that it came down to a two-day meeting in November, where he brought in the Siliverlight team. I'm simplifying, but his pitch was that Flash's scalability had never been put to an Olympic-size test. Accurate or not, that argument left the desired impression. What's more, even though Silverlight was new on the surface, Microsoft argued that under covers, it was really based on very familiar Windows Media technologies.

"We talked about features like adaptive streaming, the ability to automatically keep checking how much bandwidth you have and deliver the appropriate quality stream and how to be smart about knowing what's coming up in the stream," Bennett said. He added that Microsoft made a point of playing up the scalability of the Windows Media format as well as the ways in which Silverlight could help NBC with copy protection of its video streams.

So where was Adobe in all this? Good question. After leaving several phone messages, I got the hint: the PR team at Adobe has decided to go into bunker mode for the duration of the games. But not to get too down in the dumps, fellas. A second-place finish to Microsoft hardly rings the death knell for Flash. Far from it. In fact, Adobe Flash is being used to power CCTV's streaming of the games in China.

However, NBC's Olympics deal is a terrific boon for Silverlight. Microsoft is not disclosing specifics on the number of Silverlight downloads--except to say that it registers up to 1.5 million downloads a day. For the record, that's the same thing Microsoft has been saying since April.) However, a spokeswoman said that "in the last several days, more than 50 percent of the visitors to NBCOlympics.com on MSN already have Silverlight 2 installed."

NBC was more forthcoming. The network says that almost 25 million unique users have visited NBCOlympics.com on MSN during the games and so far viewed 456 million pages and watched nearly 22 million video streams.

Adobe's next move? John Dvorak had a delightfully curmudgeonly idea, suggesting that Adobe might well try to get back at Microsoft by releasing its Creative Suite for Linux. As they used to say in Mad magazine, file that one under "Scenes We'd Like to See."

Click here for more stories on tech and the Beijing Olympics.

[steve4lee]

I don't load a lot of junk on my Mac Pro and would be unlikely to watch the Olympics on it anyway. Sliverlight doesn't work on the Macs that I might use for watching sports from what I read, so I didn't bother to download it.

But at 1.5 million downloads a day starting in April, that comes in around 200 million, so MS is not going to miss me anyway. And only 1/8 of them actually watched the Olympics on it anyway.

[gggg sssss]

then what exactly is your point?

[rcrusoe]

In the end, Microsoft was able to convince (it's business partner) NBC it could do more. . .
Big surprise considering all the money Microsoft has poured into "BS"NBC and their other joint products.

"Microsoft made a point of playing up the . . . copy protection of its video streams." MS and copy protection - that's the name of the game when it comes to Windows.

[gsmiller88]

As of yet I haven't downloaded and installed Silverlight and do not plan to anytime soon. I don't like Flash so I doubt I will have any warmer feelings for Silverlight.

[turoa76]

Hmm, not supported on my G5 mac. How rude!!

[sanenazok]

Hah you made me think of the middle kid from Full House. "How rude" was her catchphrase!

[Groucho6]

No intention of installing any more Microsloth products, thanks. If I want to watch the Olympics, I'm sure I can do it without Silverfish.

[SnidleyWhiplash]

The video with Silverlist is jerky, halting, and pretty low res. The overall experience is pretty awful. The BBC had originally gone with a M$ solution that turned out to be a real stinkeroo and wound up having to open up to Flash video. Stay tuned, NBC's experience will be telling.

[vtchuck2000]

"...adaptive streaming, the ability to automatically keep checking how much bandwidth you have and deliver the appropriate quality stream and how to be smart about knowing what's coming up in the stream." If this is true about Silverlight, your problems probably has to do with bandwidth your ISP provides.

[haim_menashe]

CCTV does not use Flash for streaming. It uses Flash to display the sponsored ads before it begins streaming. They use something called TvKoo which is a P2P addon for the browser.

[Maccess]

I'm not installing something I've previously refused to install just to watch the Olympics on TV. Sorry, but there's already enough software enablers installed for most things I need. If a website won't work with that, too bad.

[johnklin]

This story is ridiculous. Does the writer know how Microsoft operates. This had *nothing* to do with technology. Microsoft paid a "undisclosed" amount of money to have the video done in Silverlight. No matter what Adobe could pay to make sure that Flash was going to be used for the Olympics, Microsoft would pay more. Also, the existing relationship with NBC with MSNBC I'm sure helped (reminder: the MS in MSNBC stands for Microsoft).

[skillingssucks]

Quote: "Here's the way things work at Microsoft: After correcting shortcomings in the first and second editions of its software, version 3.0 of a Microsoft product usually silences the company's worst critics, allowing management to get on with business of crushing rivals."

That's how it USED to be. Hasn't been that way for years now. Nobody is afraid of Microsoft anymore...that's pretty 1999.

[Seaspray0]

Quite a few comments about people not wanting to load "junk" onto their computers. I don't either. But I will say this... Silverlight didn't want to install any other programs when I installed it or updated it. That's alot different than quicktime which attempts to load itunes and safari every time it updates or flash which wanted to load the google toolbar. BTW, I did load the flash without the toolbar, but quicktime has been permanently removed.

[cmstratton]

I was surprised when I tried to log-on and watch some Olympic video on my iMac G5, only to find out Silverlight is only compatible with Macs with Intel processors. As a result, I can't watch. I'd much rather have Flash running this - it's much more ubiquitous. I wouldn't be surprised if Microsoft is giving some sort of kick-back to NBC to use Silverlight - covering the costs of something.

[streamOG]

WOW I am shocked actual positive coverage of Microsoft!!! Man I just can't believe my eyes. Surely there has to be another article somewhere on your site taking a counter position about MS/Silverlight/Olympics... oh wait there already is one. LOL

Yeah Silverlight is far more powerful than Flash and MS designed it for the future of streaming video hence on some older PC's it may not work as well and def not on PowerPC Macs with their 8 year old architecture.

all in all IMHO MS is doing an amaaaazing job with Silverlight and the Olympics and Tom Honeybone, Steve Skeplowich, Chris Carper, Ben Waggoner and the entire SL team should be PROUD.

Nice work guys and THANKS CNET FOR covering this story so thoroughly.

FYI: No content protection/SilverlightDRM/PlayReady on the Olympics for now.

Christopher
[e-mail]

[marvin25]

The fact of the matter that Firefox 3 you can't load silver light at all as it doesn't work. People may download the program and think they are running silver light actual running flash as the program. It is good PR by not telling the truth. I had to download silver light for a program I use at work and found I must use IE in lieu of Firefox as it only works on Firefox 2. Microsoft stated this is true and in some future time they will correct problem. Th bottom line you should check the facts. The other problem I found is Microsoft doesn't have enough bandwidth for the Olympics at all. It is running below 80K at time as well as zero speed on there download. I was monitoring on Wednesday because I was having problem and found completely that they didn't have the bandwidth for the games. Maybe they are to cheap and this should be investigated. Also you should check at the statement on silver light.

[morlamweb]

I'm watching a Silverlight video on MS Technet right now in another tab, in Firefox 3...

[FrankMcLintock]

So I guess the $50 million that MS threw NBC's way had nothing to do with it Charlie? Fantastic shill reporting for Microsoft!

[dascha1]

Sill wondering how all-in-wall is gonna work with it, ya know?

http://schalow.com/main/schalowboard.html
http://microsoft.com/surface

Cannibalism or the horse before the cart I suppose.

[nycsean]

Two comments- this is a silly headline. Given the already existing relationship between NBC and MSoft- what choice was their for Adobe? SO Adobe didn't LOSE this opportunity since they probably never had it.

OTH- thanks to NBC for doing this. The video looks pretty good for free, and I have been able to watc hseveral events without having to listen to NBC broadcasters (and their harrowing, corny stupid stories). The video covers the games equally- not filtered, not focusing on Americans who have no chance of winning while some fabulous performance is missed.

[aintnorainbowdorothy]

Let me see, Mac fanpeople (politically correct), people who can't spell and others that just hate Microsoft and anything the company does. Of course, at last one positive comment. Mine is simple. Get the rght hardware and the stream is faster than 80kb, Probably the same people who hate Vista without giving it a try. I use Silverlight instead of Flash. It's nowhere near as buggy as Flash and doesn't automatically want to put a program I don't want on my computer. Try Silverlight 2 or even Silverlight 1, you might be surprised at how well it works.Of course that's with the right equipment.

[FreddieT]

I'd be willing to give Silverlight a try if it ran on Linux. Does it?

[Ilgaz]

Their puppet Icaza codes some junk (Moon light or something) but I'm sure it doesn't do the job, just like Mono has never become .NET.

[ChrisKoenig]

Novell - as part of their Mono project - is working on a Silverlight player for Linux called Moonlight. Here's a link: http://www.mono-project.com/Moonlight

[surfpark]

I'm not sure that Adobe actually needs to Olympics. Aside from the huge waste of money the event would be, its not going to compel users to use Silverlight after the event. It would have been a bigger coup d'état if Microsoft had gotten Google, Amazon, or another high traffic web site to use the technology beyond the summer. Once the holiday season begins, many of the users that installed Silverlight will either un-install it or forget about it completely.

[WhuzYoDaddy]

>>

Google IS using Silverlight.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2008/08/googles_doublec.html

[Ilgaz]

Adobe was clever to stay away just like Real Networks. Any lag, performance issue or even computer slowness would be blamed on their software no matter it is related or not.
My Cell phone comes with Flash screensavers. Does MS think it will change the game? Start with supporting PowerPC Mac, Linux and FreeBSD which Adobe supports. Make sure your 10th generation software (flash 10) can play first generation without problems. That is what they try to race.
Along with Air/Flex, Flash is becoming the defacto BASIC like software language which ANYONE can code for, even including Linux guys.
MS is too late again and they are still daring to play same games as not supporting Linux or dropping powerpc support. Like anyone CARES!