To keep up with the convergence of media devices occurring at rapid-fire speed, Adobe has secured a deal to embed its Flash software within televisions, Blu-ray players and set top boxes to allow for developers and content providers to create and deploy web content such as news, weather and stock charts. The applications are set to deploy on televisions early in 2010 and will allow users to engage in the all of activities they are used to performing on the web.

There are a few televisions on the market that are using Yahoo’s widgets to provide a rich media experience for viewers but this deal will allow for the creation of a single standard for a media application that can be re-used for numerous other devices.

"Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home will dramatically change the way we view content on televisions," said David Wadhwani, general manager and vice president, Platform Business Unit at Adobe. "Consumers are looking to access their favorite Flash technology-based videos, applications, services and other rich Web content across screens. We are looking forward to working with partners to create these new experiences and deliver content consistently across devices whether consumers view it on their desktop, mobile phone or television."

With this announcement, Adobe has lined up partnerships with content providers such as Comcast, Netflix, the New York Times and Disney to deliver the “Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home”.

BBC News reports that "Adobe is aiming to become the global standard for all rich media in the "three screen" world - PC, TV, and mobile. Up to 40% of all mobile devices shipped in 2008 are expected to carry Flash Lite. However, the big omission remains Apple's iPhone."

As a side effect from this announcement, INM expects for Flash on TV sets to dramatically enhance the usability of devices that have now become too complex to use for most consumers. We're looking forward to seeing how Flash will help to personalize, simplify and enhance multi-device navigation and programming systems. In essence, Adobe’s move is helping consumers to move closer towards the full convergence of their televisions, DVD players, gaming systems, photo album viewers, internet browsers and multi-media devices.