I have had several mails today and saw several articles that NBC "dumped" Silverlight for Sunday Night Football. I wanted to set the record straight here. NBC has not dumped Silverlight, nor for that matter forgot to use Silverlight. :) NBC and Microsoft pulled off the largest, most viewed online event ever and the video quality, along with the user experience set the bar for new, more advanced applications online. Our relationship could not be stronger with NBC, and the success of the event has propelled our partnership to new levels. We are moving forward together and we are looking to do more with them in the near future.
To better understand how this played out you have to understand how the technology decisions are made. For the 2008 Olympics, NBC had all the broadcast and online rights in the US (reported to have paid 800+ million) to the Olympics coverage and therefore was the primary decision maker in what technology would be used. In this case they chose to use Silverlight and partnered with MSN to promote and drive traffic to their application.
Unlike the Olympics, Sunday Night Football is a joint effort between the NFL and NBC Sports. The NFL made the technology choices on what technology to use online and was ultimately responsible for the application. The NFL chose flash. It's even called out in the Adobe press release.
Nothing wrong with that, the market is big enough for both, and I applaud the NFL for taking a step to push the envelope with their web efforts to support their brand. I am sure they will work out the kinks, as they have a talented team. To say, Silverlight was dumped by NBC, or forgotten by NBC is unfortunately an effort to drive more views and TBH, just poor journalism. I would love to get your take on the NFL application, what you like, don't like, etc.
Look forward to your comments.
C
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Well, i guess you guys didn't have enought money to buy off the NFL and their contracts.
But i'm sure you will soon use your monopoly on operating systems to force people to install silverlight.
Thanks Niko, and you are of course entitled to your own opinions here and I welcome them, even if they are completely absurd.
Yes, the truth might seem that way sometimes.
nbc is partly owned by Microsoft, as you know.
(www.MSnbc.com)
NFL is not, so money does play a BIG role.
And the silverlight plug-in version 1.0 allready is visible in the windows update list. Its not listed as critical, but i'm guessing that day will come.
Could you comment how these observations are absurd.
Thank you in advance.
First, how does having MS in MSNBC.com relate to the NFL or NBC Sports, which was the topic of this blog?
For background Microsoft bought 50%of the MSNBC broadcast network in 1995, then sold controlling stake in 2005. The only venture we have with MSNBC is their online property MSNBC.com, which is completely different than and not related to the NFL or NBC Sports (completely separate entities). Both Microsoft and NBC are large companies, and the fact that we do business with another part of NBC's business does not make your statement any more logical.
Second, Yes SL 1.0 is available as an “optional” selection to users via windows update. The same way Adobe allows me to “optionally” choose to install an update to their client when one is available or Apple allows me to “optionally” download a new version of iTunes, or better yet Safari. Can you explain how allowing users to opt-in (i.e. allowing consumers the choice to physically check a box to download an update) validates your Monopoly statement?
Thank you for clearing the nbc issue. I stand corrected.
However it seems you dont understand the difference between windows update and updating 3rd party applications. The flash updating option
is only available AFTER you have chosen to download their player in
the first place.
With windows update, you can offer the option to all
windows users, even if they have newer even heard of silverlight.
This is access to peoples computers that only a windows monopoly
provides. Or do you also offer updates to flash on windows update?
It's not about whether its optional, it's when and how you are apple to offer this choise to consumers.
Thanks Niko. In regards to Windows Update, it's not uncommon for software vendors to offer updates or other applications to consumers via already established mechanisms.
Apple does this today via thier ITunes updater, even offered Safari when I did not have it (although one could argue your point as it was checked by default, where as Silverlight is optional and you have to check it if you want it). Would you agree then that this is wrong for them to advertise thier products to consumers? They don't push IE?
I don't agree that just because we advertise the update that we are "forcing" users to take Silverlight. The key is that users can choose to take the download or not. My point is (and I guess this is where we disagree) that we don't "force" anything on our customers by publishing the download on Windows Update, we always give them the choice to accept, or decline and will always be mindful of that.
Hi
From my own experience, I've seen many times Microsoft helping companies to implement new MS technologies by :
- giving money/free software stack
- providing assistance from experts and open access to some lab
- taking care of part of the development
- or any combinaison of the above points.
I can easily understand the goal and, for sure, it's not a Microsoft only habit.
However, I'm wondering whether it has been the case with this NBC Sivlerlight use.
Do you have some elements of answer ?
Thanks in advance
ZedroS
Thanks for the comment. Yes it's not uncommon business practice across the software industry to provide various resources (developer support, funding, marketing, etc.) for business deals. While we don't publically comment on the structure of our deals, our work with NBC was a joint effort between MSN and our Silverlight team along with NBC Sports. What I can say is that we worked very closely with NBC Sports and our engineering team did provide technical support to both NBC and Schematic who built the application since Silverlight was evolving and in beta. Hope that helps.
C
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