Microsoft has officially released Silverlight out of beta, and the content makers are starting to release their new Silverlight-driven web presentations. There’s already a decent list of adopters, including Major League Baseball and Fox movies who will use Silverlight for streaming video. Entertainment Tonight, The Home Shopping Network, WWE and Break.com will also use it, according to InformationWeek.
Entertainment Tonight will be creating Silverlight-based sites highlighting the “Emmy Awards” and other future events, HSN will use Silverlight for a live stream of its cable television network, the WWE will use Silverlight as a portal for wrestling videos and Break.com will launch a video search tool with a user experience based on the technology. Microsoft.com will also launch some Silverlight content, including a high-definition trailer for Halo that has already been using a test version of Silverlight.
The Entertainment Tonight content is new today and looks nice, but I’m still trying to figure out if this will all really be a threat to Flash. I will say this, the live-streaming technology with Silverlight appears far more stable than live video with Flash. That alone could have many content developers lean towards it. We know the CBS O&O’s are looking at using the technology, but a possible launch date isn’t public yet. Is anyone else looking at moving towards the Silverlight platform? What are your thoughts on the technology and the sites already using it?
