CBS TV stations have come out publicly in support of Microsoft’s new Silverlight browser plug in that is designed to keep Adobe Flash video at bay.
The CBS initiative that allows users to generate content for some of its shows, is going to just work with Silverlight as a format for using video generated outside of the stations. The idea is that if you have user generated video, and want to see it on a local CBS, then you have to convert it to Silverlight for it to drop into the internal workflow of the stations.
This is a simple backslapping exercise between CBS and best of friends, Microsoft. Surely it makes more sense to use the format that is most popular among consumers, which is Adobe Flash video, not that it will be too difficult converting between the two, because Microsoft will have to offer conversion tools from Flash to Silverlight if it wants any credibility in this market place at all.
Local users at CBS station web sites can view, upload, share, rate, comment, sort and search video, images, audio and text submissions, but if it’s video it has to be in Silverlight. Our guess is that Flash Video will also be allowed, or in fact already is, and that this is little more than an empty plug for Silverlight.