Admittedly it is not very often that Flash makes the news pages, but today is different. In what is obviously a key part of their Open Screen initiative, Adobe has just announced it has secured a deal to put Flash directly into many of the chips that go inside TVs and set-top boxes, essentially enabling any device that contains such a chip (there will be millions if not billions of them shipping over the next few years) to run Flash natively.

The article goes on to describe the use cases for such a TV set or STB: It will "create a new generation of connected entertainment services, including streaming video in high definition, and applications that can run in real time alongside video broadcasts, such as interactive news tickers, sport scores, quizzes and the weather."

Silverlight also gets a mention, but is described as having had "limited traction with developers and hardware manufacturers".

On the upside there is another hint which underlines Adobe's desire and efforts to get Flash Player onto the iPhone. All in all a great day for the Flash Platform as the ecosystem for developers has just widened considerably. Now let's hope that this story will make the 6 o'clock news too :-)