Adobe Flash to deliver NFL games in full

The National Football League, NBC Sports, and Adobe have announced their collaboration on Sunday Night Football Extra -- full-length live streams of NFL Sunday night football games.

Delivered in Adobe Flash, the games are promised to include the ability for viewers to change their camera angles, as well as access live statistics, in-game highlights, picture-in-picture views, and live blogs from color commentators.

Adobe Flash Player 9.0.115.0 or higher and Firefox 2.0+, IE7+, or Safari 2+ are required for viewing. NBC recommends a minimum 500 Kbps connection for stutter-free playback.

Running behind the scenes is Adobe Flash Media Server, supporting the huge number of expected connections. Adobe says its developers utilized the company's own Flex authoring environment, Flash CS3 Professional, and Photoshop CS3.

The technology was unveiled with the New York Giants and Washington Redskins season opener yesterday, but will officially premiere Sunday, September 7 at 8:15 pm EST, in a regular season match-up featuring the Indianapolis Colts hosting the Chicago Bears, from the Colts' brand-new Lucas Oil Stadium. The games can be accessed on snfonnbc.com.

While Adobe promises to "immerse" viewers in the games, the viewing window looks to be about the size of a default YouTube video. Since this affords low system requirements, it may make mobile viewing much more feasible than outright immersion...unless it's watched alongside the actual TV broadcast.