MLBAM, Adobe Ink Two-Year Deal For Live, On-Demand Content

By Eric Fisher, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

MLBAM has signed a two-year agreement with Adobe Systems Inc. to use the Adobe Flash platform for all MLB.com live and on-demand video content. The deal ends a long alignment with Microsoft in which MLBAM in August '07 became one of the first high-profile online video producers to use the Silverlight platform, and prior to that used Windows Media Player for its video content. The Silverlight deal, when it was first struck, was seen as the beginning of a major challenge to the far more-established Adobe, and MLBAM’s alignment was soon followed by the NBA and NBC Olympics, among others. Baseball’s switch to Adobe, according to company officials, was made to ensure a higher degree of interactivity and improved scalability and reliability. MLB.com beginning next year will also offer statistics and highlights outside of a web browser using the new Adobe Air application.