Adobe Systems Incorporated has released its Adobe Media Player beta, with support from major television broadcasters and leading content publishers including CBS, PBS, Yahoo! Video, Meredith Corporation, Blip.tv, Fora.tv, Motionbox, MyToons and StimTV.

Adobe Media Player is Adobe’s first application built on Adobe AIR software, a cross operating system application runtime that extends rich Internet applications (RIAs) to the desktop. Leveraging Adobe’s Flash technology, Adobe Media Player enables viewers to enjoy content from these broadcast television and Web video providers, giving them control to watch their favorite shows both online and offline in an engaging, customized video experience.

The player is a lightweight desktop application that offers new features for both viewers and content owners. Viewers can watch content online or download and view videos offline, all with full-screen playback. A subscription feature enables viewers to subscribe to their favorite shows or podcasts and then automatically receive new episodes as they become available.

Adobe Media Player is cross-platform, based on open standards - including Really Simple Syndication (RSS) and Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) - and brings viewers the highly desired ability to play Adobe Flash Player compatible video, the Web’s most popular video format, outside of their browser.

For content publishers, Adobe Media Player offers new ways to distribute, measure and build businesses around video content. The player enables a wider selection of monetization and branding options including viewer-centric dynamic advertising and the ability to customize the look and feel of the player to match the brand or theme of the video content. Adobe Media Player also provides sophisticated measurement of usage data, as well as content protection options, including streaming encryption, content integrity safeguards and identity-based protection.

The beta version of the Adobe Media Player is available immediately as a free download from Adobe Labs. The Adobe Media Player is available in English and offered for both Windows and Macintosh operating systems. The final release of the Adobe Media Player is scheduled to be available in early 2008.