PM Modi's I-Day speech streamed live on Google, YouTube

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Independence Day speech was watched by lakhs of netizens through the Google homepage today after public broadcaster Prasar Bharati tied up with the tech giant for live-streaming the event.

The same facility was also used to telecast the inauguration ceremony of US President Donald Trump.

As people searched for anything to do with Independence Day, the live-stream appeared on the right-hand top on the page.

The prime minister's speech on Doordarshan's live streaming on YouTube had garnered over 5.55 lakh views till afternoon.

Doordarshan's coverage of Independence Day celebrations opened with a patriotic song recorded by singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan, and in a first, anchors presented the event from the ramparts of Red Fort.

The live-streaming through the Google home page was part of Prasar Bharati's efforts to "dramatically increase" the visibility and access to the live-stream of the prime minister's speech.

"Livestreming has now been going on for a few years. Last year it was a million plus views, Republic Day was 3-4 million views. That is the general trend. This will take it to the next level altogether," Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati had said.

He had said the dominant sentiment about Doordarshan was nostalgia with the younger generation having no real brand experience of Doordarshan and this was one way of making them familiar with it.