NBC Did Not “Drop” Silverlight In Favor Of Flash: Bloggers Simply Want Headlines

It’s a shame that in our industry, some bloggers are more concerned with writing a headline just for drama sake, as opposed to actually getting the details right. In the past few days, at least half a dozen sites said that NBC was "dropping", "dumping" or "ditching" Silverlight in favor or Flash for streaming of football games on NBCSports and NFL.com. Some also had headlines like "NBC has enough of Silverlight".

Problem is, none of this is true. Did any of these journalists actually speak to anyone at NBC or the NFL? If any of them made a simple inquiry to NBC or the NFL they would have gotten the same response I got which was, "NBC did not drop Silverlight and this was an entirely separate event and partnership. The NFL selected Adobe." And in order to "drop", "dump", or "ditch" something it means you have to be using it first. Since the NFL games had never been broadcast before, how were they using Silverlight in the past? The Olympics has nothing to do with the NFL. And it looks even worse for those who wrote these posts trying to make Silverlight sound bad, but then in the same post said that the NFL video experience with Flash was not very good.

I’m sure some will say who cares, the bottom line is that the NFL selected Flash. Ok, then make the story about that, don’t try to make it out to be something it isn’t.