Adobe just announced that the NFL is going to use Flash to deliver live, online streaming video for NBC Sunday and Thursday night football games. You can go watch the games on NBCSports.com right now. It looks like they used Flex to build the player and I assume they’re using H.264 as the codec.
The NFL is a really, really tough nut to crack. As the biggest sports league in America in terms of revenue and viewership, they can basically do anything they want. And their incentive to take risks is very low.
The video quality is pretty good and I love the fact that you can switch between cameras. They’ve got 5 live streams going at the same time and it’s going to be a great way to check out replays. And because it’s live, they’re still able to include advertising. The killer is a lack of full screen. The Olympics Silverlight app did this as well and I can’t figure it out. That should be such a key, easy feature. Hopefully this isn’t the start of a trend.
I think this is going to be a great example of Flash, a great showcase for RIAs, and hopefully a good point of comparison between the Olympic Silverlight player.
