Adobe, Time Warner eye online videos

San Francisco: Adobe Systems Inc., maker of the Flash online-video software, is teaming up with Time Warner Inc. to make internet videos more appealing and find ways for media companies to earn money from the clips.

Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System, Warner Bros. Entertainment and HBO are working with Adobe to make Flash videos easier to find. They're also seeking to protect web-based content and measure the size of audiences, the San Jose, California-based software maker said on Thursday.

Adobe's Flash, used to view online video and animation, is installed on 98 per cent of the world's personal computers. Millions rely on the software to watch everything from TV shows and movies to home videos. Even so, entertainment companies are still searching for ways to make money from those viewers.

"The biggest problem in the media industry is making money from online content," Jim Guerard, an Adobe vice president and general manager, said in an interview. "Everything we are doing together becomes the standard platform that we can sell to the rest of the industry."

Adobe is using Flash to add Internet features and interactivity to almost all its products, including the Acrobat PDF software. Adobe fell 66 cents, or 4 per cent, to $16.04 on Wednesday on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have declined 25 per cent this year.

New York-based Time Warner, down 27 per cent so far in 2009, fell 27 cents to $7.36 on the New York Stock Exchange.