This year at NAB (the annual National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas) Adobe???s chief executive, Shantanu Narayen announced plans to extend Flash to the television screen. TVs and set-top boxes that support the Flash format may be available as early as later this year.

For Hollywood studios and other content creators, a single format for Web video is even more enticing. It means they can create their entertainment once in Flash ??? as the animated documentary ???Waltz With Bashir,??? from Sony Pictures Classics, was made ??? and distribute it cheaply throughout the expanding ecosystem of digital devices. Web, mobile – and soon, television.

???Coming generations of consumers clearly expect to get their content wherever they want on it, on any device, when they want it,??? said Bud Albers, the chief technology officer of the Disney Interactive Media Group, who joined Adobe executives at NAB to voice Disney???s support for the Flash format. ???This gets us where we want to go.???

Personally, I think this is fantastic. Flash and TV are the perfect match. Now, all we’ll have to wait for is Flash on the iPhone. Come on Apple – get with the program!

(http://www NULL.elainemontoya NULL.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/iphoneflash NULL.gif)It’s been a long time coming . . . and now it looks like it may become a reality.

Since the launch of the iPhone, I’ve been asking for Flash (http://www NULL.adobe NULL.com/devnet/devices/). Why? Because it just makes sense.

Think about it. Flash Player is the world’s most pervasive software platform. It is used by over 2 million professionals and reaching 99.0% of Internet-enabled desktops in mature markets as well as a wide range of devices. Flash is popping up everywhere – from mobile phones to consumer devices like the Chumby (http://www NULL.chumby NULL.com/), iRiver (http://www NULL.iriver NULL.com), and Sony PSP (http://www NULL.us NULL.playstation NULL.com/PSP).

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