Times Audience Network (TAN) which is the digital video arm of the Times group has launched another new initiative. They have launched Live.Indiatimes.com which is a live streaming platform for TV channels and offline events. TAN has tested the live streaming capability with the recently held TED India conference which also became a trending topic on twitter as well.
We spoke to Sameer Pitalwalla, Head – TAN, who updated us that this platform has been under testing for the last four weeks and they had earlier live streamed the times now elections as well as the budget. Sameer stated that they were very happy with the results of the same and of TED India which led them to launching this platform.
Reasons To Go Live
He also stated that the reasons to launch this platform was also because they felt that the web is moving to a realtime environment and live and real time is a huge draw for the audiences. As they have already ventured into on demand and mobile video, live video is another step towards an ultimate realtime experience.
Kind of Events To Be Streamed
Sameer stated that for the first time in the history of TED it was streamed live in the world. Their next event will be the Bombay Times party that will be streamed live this Friday. Going forward live platform would be a platform for all kinds of events large and small including but not limited to televised and music events.
Who is the Audience?
This platform would be instrumental in attracting new unique visitors besides for the existing visitors we already attract.
Publicity for the Platform
The Times network (both online and TV) would be used to promote the platform. He also felt that the platform was intrinsically viral in nature and would spread via social media.
Minimum Bandwith Required?
For best viewing experience a speed of over 192kbps – 256 kbps bandwidth is required.
On Monetization
TAN already has monetization in place and will provide advertisers page sponsorships and we shall have prerolls, overlays, playerskinning and player resize on and around the video. This platform would be positioned as a premium property to advertisers.
On Social Media Integration
Each channel has a separate url which is integrated with a separate twitter and facebook stream on that page. When live streaming of TEDIndia was on it was instrumental in making TEDIndia a trending topic on twitter. The integration of facebook and twitter is instrumental in making this kind of product viral and getting the word around about the live streaming. Also besides for facebook and twitter we have also integrated 5888 sms platform as well for the audience to sms.
Our Take
I think this is a unique initiative and by far the best that ive seen from the Times stable in a long long time. There is nothing in India yet which compares to this platform as live streaming has been a failure in the early years due to the bandwidth issue. But with the times content network and events like Femina Miss World and Filmfare awards one can surely expect a good amount of audience logging in to view the live stream. The other opportunity I see for TAN is the long tail of smaller events and conferences which cannot host their own live stream. If TAN is able to launch an enterprise version of this live streaming then they would have an array of event organizers looking to subscribe to this service.
hi.. i think this is of no use as considered to that of present situation the technology that is being used is worse as it force an individual to have that product .. i think the media house have not very much open in delivering the news rather than it’s an attempt to promote piracy…
you might be thinking how .. it is quite ovisus the technology that this web site is using is not available on open source so you are forcing an individual to go ahead with the piracy as open source lovers too have the equal right to get the correct information at correct time .. so come on man think regarding the future and try to deliver quality product rather than promoting piracy ..