News Television Plans Webcasting By Year-End

Webcasting will emerge as a focus area over time, and the company will make substantial investments for its development.

Ajay Vidya Sagar, vice-president, new media, convergence and information technology ventures, News TV India, said, "We expect to webcast our programmes in an organised manner by the end of this year. We want to be a significant brand in the new emerging economy." Vidya Sagar was speaking at an information technology convention last weekend in Mumbai.

The company did make a dry run earlier when it attempted webcasting programmes of vIndia.com, the portal launched by Channel V, the 24-hour music channel also controlled by the Star group. However, the move did not succeed because of lack of infrastructure, bandwidth problems in particular, Vidya Sagar added.

 

He said News Television's success in India would primarily depend on two things: developing content and localised programming. He added that News Corporation's strategy was to reach consumers in an effective manner.

In this regard, the company was following three strategies -- platform development, integrate connectivity and network investing.

In platform development, the company wants to develop attractive and informative content. For example, the world's leading portal Yahoo! receives its sports content from ESPN.com. The idea, Vidya Sagar said, would be able to generate subscription revenues from consumers by providing a detailed platform.

To integrate connectivity, the company wants to focus on every segment which includes sports, entertainment, news, content and marketing services, and would strive to provide value-added services to retain its customers.

In Internet connectivity, the company wants to invest in portals of significant potential. It has already invested in Bazee.com, Indya.com, Fabmart.com and Indiaproperties.com. The company does not just want to provide venture capital, but wants to build and enable the network with attractive content. "We want to partner with companies who will share our vision," Vidya Sagar said.