Adobe to help stream Olympics, eyes Super Bowl

Adobe Systems Inc will get into the Olympics as its technology helps stream live events this summer to mobile users all over the world as the software company hopes demand for video will support its push into new areas including the Super Bowl.

"The two aspirations we had when we started Adobe Media Server were the Olympics and live streaming of the Super Bowl," said David Wadhwani, senior vice president and general manager of Adobe's digital media business unit.

He added that the two events posed different challenges for delivering live events to people who want to watch on smartphones and other mobile devices.

"The Olympics take place over several weeks and about one billion people will want to watch the Super Bowl for four hours."

Adobe, the world's largest maker of design software, in March announced its Adobe Media Server 5 that also allowed streaming video on devices such as the iPad.

Wadhwani, who was speaking at Reuters Global Media and Technology Summit in New York, said Adobe is working with multiple partners to help insert advertisements into the live streaming of the Games.

"I think the bigger revenue opportunity around video is advertising," he said but declined to name any partners.

Companies such as NBC Universal, BBC and Google Inc's YouTube have announced that they will stream the Olympics live. NBC has said it will offer the service in the United State and the BBC will stream the event in the UK.

YouTube has said it agreed with the International Olympic Committee to broadcast the event in 64 territories across Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

Apart from Adobe, content delivery networks such as Akamai or Limelight will benefit from live streaming as well.

Asked how Adobe had prepared for the events, Wadhwani said that the company had set up environments on a micro scale, then tried to replicate them.

"This will not only test our technology, but also the global infrastructure to support it," he said.

He added that he was optimistic: "We held up reasonably well on (President Barack) Obama's inauguration."

Follow Reuters Summits on Twitter @Reuters_Summits.

(Reporting By Jennifer Saba, Nicola Leske and Jim Finkle in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

(The story corrects the spelling of David Wadhwani's name throughout)