Adobe have announced the release of Flash Media Server 3, the latest version of its delivery platform for the company’s near ubiquitous Flash technology. Over at our sister blog, Read/WriteWeb, Josh Catone has the scoop, and says that “the most striking change to Flash Media Server is the drastically reduced price”.

Because in the past Flash Media Server has cost so much (upwards of $45,000 per license), streaming flash media has long been a very cost-prohibitive endeavor. The high price, commonly referred to as the “Flash tax,” led many to seek out alternative media servers like the open source Red 5. The latest version of Flash Media Sever, which will ship in January 2008, will be come in three versions, ranging from free to $4,500 — a price drop of 90%.

The Flash Media Interactive Server 3, the most expensive of the offerings, will provide more scalability and a robust new plugin architecture that its lower priced counterparts don’t offer. But for single server deployments, the $995 Flash Media Streaming Server, should be sufficient and could be attractive for smaller media publishers. Adobe will also offer a developer version for free that supports up to 10 concurrent users.

Other important developments in Flash Media Server 3: the debut of streaming HD video. FMS3 will offer H.264 video streaming, as well as support for High Efficiency AAC (HE-AAC) audio that can be streamed to Flash player, AIR applications, or Adobe’s Media Player app.

In addition to the Flash Media Server 3, Adobe also announced that Flash Player 9 Update 3 (codenamed “Moviestar”) has left public Beta and is available for general download as of today. We’ve previously written about “Moviestar”, noting its support for the more efficient H.264 codec, which is capable of delivering much higher quality video using the same bandwidth as the legacy Flash video format.

I’m toying with the radical idea of boycotting NBC. That means no more of “The Office,” “Heroes,” “Chuck”, or any of the other shows I watch from NBC Universal.

Why? I’m pissed. I’m pissed because in the digital age networks should deliver their content the way we want it, not just how they want to do it. For some, that means watching shows through the networks’ ad-supported streaming Websites. For others, we’ll pay for the shows we watch through download services such as iTunes or Amazon Unbox and watch it on whatever devices we own — AppleTV, iPods, TiVo, DVRs, Play for Sure devices.

The technology is here to do both, to give consumers multiple choices for how they view network content, fitting their busy mobile lives. Instead, NBC Universal wants to control our entire viewing experience.

NBC over the weekend picked up its ball, stomped off the iTunes playground, and who knows if it will ever return. After a very public rift, NBC and Apple are split, finished, kaput — for now. Their initial contact expired at the end of November, and true to its word NBC pulled all of its content from the iTunes store.

It’s almost as if, once NBC decided to dump iTunes, the network has been looking for every venue possible to make its shows available for digital viewing.

The latest place on the Internet to find NBC shows is Netflix, best known for its online DVD rentals. Netflix has signed a deal with NBC Universal (press release) to offer online episodes of “Heroes” and past episodes of other series such as “30 Rock”, “Friday Night Lights”, and “The Office.” Netflix subscribers will have the option of watching these shows immediately on their computers at Netflix.com or on DVD.

“Heroes” episodes will appear on the Netflix website the day after they air on NBC. There’s no word if each episode will be available throughout the season, or if shows will be taken down once new ones are aired.

South Park fans rejoice (“Kenny” to live online forever).

Following a successful experiment with “The Daily Show”, MTV Networks will make every episode of “South Park” available free online sometime next year, as part of the company’s wider distribution strategy “to reach consumers everywhere” (see the Reuters report).

The lesson learnt by MTV Networks subsidary, Comedy Central, when it made the entire archive of “The Daily Show” available for streaming online, is that Internet TV viewing can lead to more traditional television viewing. In other words, The Daily Show’s television viewing figures are up not down, even though fans are able get an unlimited fix via the show’s own website.