A report insuggests that some top content merchants are balking at converting their existing Flash-authored video to a more iPad-friendly HTML5 format.The report says that both Time Warner and NBC Universal have told Apple that they won't rework their extensive library of content to accommodate Apple, which has banned Flash on its devices, and prohibited cross-platform tools from authoring content that will appear on its App Store. The reason, the paper suggested, was that the recoding would be too expensive.CBS, Fox News, and CNN have supported Apple's efforts to a limited extent, the paper noted.To date, Apple has attempted to use its clout and mystique (with words like "magical" to describe the iPad) to entice developers and content providers to port their content over to the iPad. If the report is true, Apple's strategy isn't working - or, more likely, the content kings are wondering if the investment to port their own content to the iPad platform makes sense.Meanwhile, Apple sits on over $10 billion in cash. Will Apple be forced to step in and facilitate the conversion process? One scenario might involve Apple stepping in and buying a startup that specializes in Flash-to-HTML5 video conversion, then open-sourcing the tools. Problem is that I don't know of one, offhand. Any suggestions, readers? EDIT: "catcher" suggests LiveCliq , a service that performs conversion in the cloud.

Originally posted to AppScout.