CBS Leverages Silverlight for YouTube NCAA March Madness Site
Microsoft Silverlight may not be the first solution you think of when considering how YouTube might stream live TV. But in fact that's exactly what CBS used on their NCAA March Madness On Demand YouTube channel. It appears that the player and feeds for audio and video are coming direct from CBS, and upon further examination the Silverlight-powered player is identical to the one offered on CBS' own March Madness site. We first heard about this new offering from a post on NewTeeVee.
The player lets you adjust the video quality in four discrete steps to best utilize your available bandwidth. It looks as though the source feed is high-definition, because if quality is bumped all the way up to maximum even the full-screen mode looks great. In fact, the player as a whole is easy to use, and free of hiccups or bugs.
When we went to TV.com and selected the March Madness link, it went to the CBS-hosted link mentioned above. It appears, at least in this case, that YouTube has perhaps a slightly tighter integration over CBS' own streaming video site offering. But there are a couple of perks that are also available no matter which path you choose. Going the YouTube route gives you quick access to CBSNCAATourney video clips. Choosing the CBS site offers a live Facebook status update stream similar to what CNN did during the presidential debates. So, either way, everybody wins.
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ESPN360 also provides the games but is only available to select ISPs.
using microsoft technology guarantees i'll stay away.
way to cut out linux users....
I think tying Internet video streams to specific players would have been like making a broadcast TV signal in the analog world only playable on one brand of televisions... anti-consumer, anti-competitive, and stupid.
Internet TV for live events should just be streamed raw video, let everyone else use what sites and containers they like. If the stream has ads the provider still gets their due. I don't think most of us are going to be 'pirating' or watching old basketball games years later.
Interesting considering that YouTube swears by flash because of the cross-compatibility. Silverlight, as you all know, is still a closely guarded platform from Microsoft - so they're not supporting Linux. But someone created a Silverlight hack but unfortunately it's not quite there and it's not reliable and with streaming it performs poorly.
Still it's interesting to see YouTube testing the waters, or perhaps they're merely bowing to pressure from CBS who preferred it streamed this way.
Youtube would do better staying away from it.
Thank you very much for this useful article. I like it.
You guys are such haters. Silverlight is great and cross-platform and much more efficient than Adobe Flash.
@sexysofie: You're missing out.
@Online Television: There is Moonlight for Linux that will do the trick. In fact, Microsoft also have involvement in the project, though it's not entirely official.
@hj: How? Because it's made by Microsoft?
Silverlight 3 has been great if you actually tried it people.
http://www.bestsilverlightsite.com
Just wondering if any of you guys seen the this site which everyone is saying its the best silverlight site they have seen. It heard it was built with F# take full advantage of
animation system. Its a really cool site.
I didn't know you could watch these matches online, is it the official CBS site where you can do so?
-Alison