Adobe said on Monday the BBC will use its Flash software to broadcast video and audio from its Web site, giving the Web content software company another high-profile customer. The BBC will use Flash as the technological underpinning for its free iPlayer streaming media service by the end of 2008, complementing its existing download service that offers about 400 hours of shows at a time, Adobe said in a statement.

Streaming technology plays video or audio directly over the Internet while a downloading service lets users download files to their computers and then play them at any time.

Financial terms of the deal were not revealed. Adobe's Flash software is used in most popular online video sites, such as Google 's YouTube.