14 DAY TRIAL // France Télévisions and Eurosport have tapped Microsoft technologies in order to enable users of their respective websites to watch high-definition content from the 2010 French Open tennis championships. As of May 26th, 2010, and until June 6th Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming will enable visitors to FranceTV and Eurosport websites to watch games featuring superstars like Rafael Nadal in the Roland-Garros French Open Tennis. The Spaniard has already won the French Open no less than four times, and, despite the loss last year, he is most probably THE player to watch in 2010.
”You can enjoy the 2010 French Open tennis championships live and on-demand on the Web via Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming. In France, check out the France Télévisions site where you can watch up to 9 live streams with full DVR and time-shifting features thanks to the Microsoft Silverlight Media Framework, which allows content owners and broadcasters to create advanced media players with almost no coding. If you have a DTS Neural Audio-equipped receiver, you can even experience 5.1 surround sound,” a member of the Silverlight team revealed.
While the content on FranceTV’s website is offered for free, tennis fans will need to pay a subscription in order to watch the Roland-Garros French Open on Eurosport. “If you’re a subscriber in one of the 39 countries covered by Eurosport, you can watch Roland-Garros online in 720p on their site,” the Silverlight team representative added.
In order to deliver the new Silverlight and IIS Smooth Streaming experience to their users, France Télévisions and Eurosport have partnered with Akamai, Inlet and Ucaya, in addition to using technology from Microsoft. Sport fans around the world are undoubtedly already familiar with Silverlight, as the Redmond company’s alternative to Adobe Flash has been an integral part of the online experiences for the last summer and winter Olympic games.
Silverlight 4 Build 4.0.50401.0 RTW is available for download here.