At the MIX07 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, Microsoft and CBS announced that they will be forming a partnership. The partnership involves CBS’ videos powered by Microsoft’s Silverlight software. Microsoft Silverlight will allow videos to be streamed across multiple browsers and competes directly with Adobe Flash.
Not only will CBS use Silverlight, but the television broadcast company will also use Microsoft Expression Media Encoder. The Encoder software will allow users to upload their own content whether it is video, audio, text, or images.
“This is not about creating a portal to compete with YouTube or MySpace,” stated Jonathan Leess, the President and a General Manager of CBS Television Stations Digital Media Group. “It is a user-generated content tool, and we’re going to use the Silverlight platform to build an actual application. The key to this product is it’s a seamless experience for users to create, upload and edit content into a portal that is connected by the Internet [to our Websites].”*
User-uploaded content will be available on CBS station websites by October 2007 and the Silverlight plug-in should be available by this summer. The user-uploaded content will be moderated by CBS staff members.
[Source: Broadcast Newsroom]
