The popular “This Week in Tech,” or TWiT, netcast network recently partnered with Mediafly to expand it’s podcasting and video distribution across multiple platforms.   Leo Laporte, the man behind TWiT, recently announced the partnership with Mediafly at this year’s Blog World Expo.

The move will expand TWiT’s audience and make the technology show’s video available beyond just iTunes users.  Mediafly will be able to direct the content to a wide variety of devices,  including the Palm Pre, Android devices, BlackBerry, Zune, Logitech Squeezebox, and soon directly to your Roku video player.   While it is clear that iTunes will continue to reach an extremely large audience, being able to reach more people through multiple devices and delivery streams will certainly benefit content providers.

Full Press Release follows.

Chicago — The TWiT netcast network has partnered with the digital media distribution company Mediafly expands into video distribution across multiple video platforms.

TWiT, led by ‘Chief TWiT’ Leo Laporte, is home to many of the world’s most popular online audio shows about technology, including the popular roundtable podcast “This Week in Tech,” and the most popular audio shows about Apple, Microsoft, Google, Web 2.0, computer security, and more. But to this point, Laporte had hesitated to make the jump to downloadable video, lest the effort be limited to only iTunes or iPhone users.

“I’ve always said that iTunes was the best and worst thing to ever happen to podcasting,” said Laporte. “It was great because it made downloading shows like TWiT easier. But it was bad because its success drowned out competition among other players, platforms, and devices. Now with Mediafly, we can expand beyond iTunes and the iPhone to big screen TV with devices like the Roku, and onto millions of other smart phones like the Palm Pre and the Android phones.”

“With Mediafly, we can now deliver the quality video experience we’ve been seeking,” Laporte said.

Non-Apple smart phones represent a large, untapped market for digital content creators. According to a CNN report, BlackBerrys had a 55.3 percent share in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 19.5 percent for iPhones. That’s up from the third quarter of 2008, when BlackBerry devices controlled 40.4 percent of the U.S. smartphone market, compared with 30.1 percent for Apple.

In addition to mobile phones, Mediafly enables distribution to the rapidly growing market of Internet set-top boxes such as the popular Roku Digital Video Player (also known as the Netflix Player by Roku).

“Mediafly is an incredible platform because it allows content companies as diverse as the Motionbox home video sharing service and the TWiT netcast network to leverage the Roku platform quickly and easily,” said Brian Jaquet, director, corporate communications for Roku. “We’re thrilled to have Leo’s TWiT network as part of the Roku platform as we launch in the coming weeks.”

On Friday, October 16, attendees at the Blog World Expo in Las Vegas got an early look at the new TWiT video shows using the Mediafly system.

Anyone with a Palm Pre or Android phone can get early access to the new TWiT mobile apps by simply texting the word ‘twit’ to 30364 or visiting www.TWiTonMediafly.com from a Palm Pre or Android phone.

In the coming weeks, the new TWiT video shows will also launch on iTunes/iPhone, BlackBerry phones, Internet set-top boxes, and more.

“We decided to provide early access via the Palm Pre and Android phones to emphasize that a great multimedia experience is now easy to get on many platforms, not just iTunes and the iPhone,” said Mediafly CEO, Carson Conant. “We’re thrilled to enable millions of people to be able to watch shows like TWiT on your HDTV from the comfort of your couch, or from your smart phone wherever you roam.

Update from Mediafly: View the Leo Laporte’s keynote presentation Here.

[Mediafly and TWiT]

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