Sharkstream To Go Live Today

Sharkstream.com, Asia's leading streaming portal operated by UTV Interactive (UTVi), a wholly-owned subsidiary of UTV and one of the largest television software producers in India and Southeast Asia, will go live today.

The company, which currently offers about 100 channels on its broadband platform, will extend its services to India later. "We will extend this service offering in India once the service providers support broadband services," said P Ghosh chief executive officer UTV. He was speaking at a seminar titled Convergence of IT, Telecom and Cable with power, organised by Assocham here.

He also said as part of its increased thrust on the converged media, more and more of the company's software produced for television would be digitised. "We have recently digitised hundreds of hours of software and this will be an on going process," he pointed out.

 

"We are aiming at emerging as Asia's leading streaming portal offering proprietary content, acquired content and links to other audio and video sites offering entertainment. We think that the service will have a bright future in India once the bandwidth issues are solved," Ghosh said.

According to Ghosh, the site already offers over a 100 hours of `click-and-view' programming over the broadband network in Singapore on full-screen video. These programmes also have VCD quality sound and the pictures are in MPEG 1 format coming off the `Singapore One' broadband network at the speed of 1.5 mbps.

The site has also concluded agreements with several content providers to provide programming on the site.

Sharkstream.com has also undertaken the development of interactive programming better suited to the Web user and aims to be a leader in this area. It is well equipped to do so given the vast production talent and capabilities of the parent company UTV.

Sharkstream.com will also provide links to and information on a comprehensive list of streaming sites on the Web to provide a total streaming experience to users seeking `live' or `streamed' product on the Internet.

A second interactive feature of sharkstream.com is the inclusion of raw video and audio footage on the site which can be utilised in the production of home movies, video mail or other forms of communication and presentation.

The concept of `be-a-star, producer or director' is already being promoted heavily by hardware manufacturers like Apple (iMac Digital Video) and several quickcam manufacturers.

In addition, the company, which started offering its Internet property in Tamil and Gujarati, will extend it other Indian languages too. "We are actively looking at other Indian national languages too. This will happen soon," Ghosh said.

Sharkstream.com was launched as a hyperlink to http://www.utvi.com.sg in December 1999, in collaboration with the Economic Development Board, Singapore, the National Computer Board, Singapore, and the Singapore One Broadband Infrastructure. Technical software is being provided by PictureTel owned by Starlight Networks.

Being a portal, traffic generation is the key and translating that into advertising revenue will be an essential part of revenue generation. Revenues will also accrue from subscriptions, pay-per-view models and e-commerce referral fees. The site is hosted and developed in Singapore and the team consists of television and production professionals with backgrounds and expertise in marketing, technology and business development.

According to Ghosh, the site will offer broadband services, UTV proprietary content, Interactive content.