Adobe has revealed that it plans to extend the Adobe Flash Platform to connected digital home devices, including television, set-top boxes and Blu-Ray players.

Making the announcement at the NAB show currently taking place in Las Vegas, the company said that it will be delivering an optimised implementation of Flash technology that delivers high-definition video and rich applications to Internet-connected televisions and other devices in the digital living room, including set-top boxes.  The Adobe Flash Platform for the Digital Home is available immediately to equipment manufacturers, and the first devices with support for the optimised Flash technology are expected to ship in the second half of this year.

A number of semiconductor vendors, OEMs, cable operators and content providers have simultaneously announced support for the optimised Flash technology, including Sigma Designs, NXP Semiconductors, Intel, Comcast, Disney Interactive Media Group and Netflix.

“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 of the 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.”

The news follows indications at the end of last week that Google is preparing for an assault on the set-top box middleware market with its Android platform.  While rumours concerning the use of Android on a new Motorola set-top box for Japanese telco KDDI were denied to IPTV News by Motorola, the Chairman of the Open Embedded Software Foundation (OESF), Masataka Miura, has been quoted as saying that there will be a number of displays later this year at Japanese electronics show CEATEC which will include prototype Android-based set-top boxes conceptualised by the OESF.