BBC director-general Mark Thompson announced on Friday his intention to launch an international commercial version of the iPlayer within a year.

In his MacTaggart Lecture to the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival, Thompson said people like servicemen should be able “to use a UK version of the iPlayer wherever they are in the world”.

But licencing restrictions and technical issues may prove problematic.

In a move which could be seen by some as the diversification their platform offering, and to others, a possible slap in the face for Flash. Cambridge, Mass.-based online video platform Brightcove announced on Monday their new Brightcove Experience for HTML5.

The new platform provides support for intelligent device detection, playlist rendering, and playback of H.264 encoded video content. a framework for publishing and delivering interactive and advertising-supported Web video.

Less than 8 months after launching their Silverlight powered rich media video player, British broadcaster, ITV have dropped Microsoft’s rich streaming platform in favour of the more established, Adobe Flash Player.

According to a recent report from Adobe EMEA Flash Platform Evangelist Andrew Shorten, technical problems experienced by end-users, and the relatively low distribution of the the runtime, are partly to blame for ITV abandoning Microsoft’s rich streaming platform.

This week, at the 2009 IBC (International Broadcasting Convention) trade show in Amsterdam, Adobe Systems announced Flash Access 2.0. Formerly known as Adobe Flash Media Rights Management Server (FMRMS), Flash Access is content protection software that lets video and audio authors control how, when, and where their content can be experienced by users – even after download.

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) is offering tennis fans, live streaming of the 2009 US Open from the Arthur Ashe Stadium. The interactive HD streaming is further enhanced by the offering of a picture-in-picture feature and real-time stats.

The site also leverages IBM’s Flash powered Slam Tracker, which lets users track player progression, schedules and scores for the entire tournament. Slam Tracker’s scoreboard “pushes” point-by-point scoring, live draw results, match and serve stats, player information and tracking, as well as interactive venue maps and live streaming radio.