Adobe is beefing up its multi-screen video capabilities and expanding its reach as pay TV distributors, content providers, and consumers show mounting interest in TV Everywhere services.

The digital media specialist unveiled two significant upgrades to its Adobe Primetime video publishing product Tuesday. Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE) also announced a major new customer for its Primetime service: Turner Broadcasting System Inc. .

In the first upgrade, Adobe has added video analytics capabilities to Primetime, which is used by Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSA, CMCSK) and several other large content providers for multi-screen video services. The analytics capabilities include video consumption reports, standardized metrics for video programming and ads, and a real-time quality-of-service monitoring service. In addition, Adobe is introducing a pricing model with a flat, per-stream rate for video content, rather than a variable rate based on the data collected.

In the second upgrade, Adobe has added a cloud-based digital rights management (DRM) service to Primetime's portfolio. Available as a hosted Web service in the cloud, the new offering is designed to foster compliance, robustness, management, and scalability. Adobe says new features can be added without having to update software on an on-premises video server.

In addition to unveiling the upgrades, Adobe has added Turner Broadcasting to a Primetime customer roster that also includes NBC Sports, Tennis Channel, and RTL Group's M6 Channel. Turner will use the Adobe Primetime Player and its dynamic ad insertion technology to power and monetize new TNT and TBS apps and websites. The deal calls for Adobe to do the same for other Turner networks and properties, including Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, and truTV.

Service providers, content providers, and consumers are demonstrating steadily growing enthusiasm for multi-screen video offerings. Adobe said in a press release that the number of authenticated video streams surged 400 percent between the first half of 2012 and the first half of this year, as tracked by the Adobe Digital Index. "The average number of unique visitors to sites with online TV content grew nearly seven fold."

Primetime customers generated a whopping 29.3 billion video streams in the third quarter -- 124 percent more than a year earlier, Adobe said. Plus, with at least 50 TV channels now operating more than 100 multi-screen video sites and apps across mobile devices, 16 percent of US homes currently watch pay TV content online -- double the number that did so last December.

"What it means to us is that TV Everywhere is getting out of the early adoption phase and into the mainstream," Ashley Still, director of product management for video solutions at Adobe, told us. Company officials predict that every major US TV channel will have a multi-screen presence within the next two years.

— Alan Breznick, Cable/Video Practice Leader, Light Reading