Hoping to continue building momentum for its Silverlight technology, Microsoft announced Monday that major substance providers are coming aboard and it unveiled a new digital-rights management (DRM) system.

The announcement, at the National organization of Broadcasters show in Las Vegas, said Silverlight technology will be used by Madison Square Garden Interactive, Tencent, Abertis Telecom, Terra Networks Operations, SCSi, MNet, and Yahoo Japan.

1.5 Million Downloads Daily

Scott Guthrie, a Microsoft corporate vice president, called the participation of these companies part of “broad industry recognition and rapid adoption of Silverlight across the world.” He added that the technology provides “the highest quality creation and delivery of media, protected substance, advertising and rich Net applications.” The software giant said the Silverlight plug-in is being downloaded 1.5 million times each day.

The substance partners are using Silverlight in a variety of ways. MSG Interactive is using it to deliver live, on-demand composition to sports and entertainment fans. China’s largest World Wide Web portal, Tencent, said

it is developing a series of Silverlight-based next-generation Web services for its 300 million users.

Abertis Telecom is using Silverlight to deliver dozens of Spanish-language TV channels in a restricted Web application, and Terra Networks is using it for its new high-definition channel — expected to reach millions of subscribers in Latin America and the U.S.

Yahoo Japan announced last week that it is using Silverlight for video distribution and World Wide Web services.

Silverlight DRM

Microsoft plus announced Silverlight DRM for composition protection. The company said it will be compatible with the existing base of Windows Media DRM 10 subject matter, and will support on-demand streaming, live streaming, and progressive downloads. Some subject matter owners have announced backing for that DRM, including Netflix, Paramount Pictures, Limelight Networks, and Technicolor.

Silverlight has been positioned as a competitor to Adobe System’s Flex, Flash and AIR platform. Flash is widespread as a plug-in to…

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