BCCL launches website for live video streaming of TV channels and events

Times Audience Network (TAN), the digital video arm of Bennett, Coleman & Company Limited (BCCL), has created an online property, Live.Indiatimes.com, to stream video content live from TV channels and offline events and conferences.

Sameer Pitalwalla, head, TAN, reveals that Live.Indiatimes.com will be a Times Group agnostic property and the company will stream the video content live from its own TV channels as well as from TV channels owned by other media groups.

Pitalwalla indicates that there are plans to add live video feed from a Hindi business news channel and a few regional TV channels soon. Apart from this, the Times Group owned English business news channel, ET Now, will also be offered in the coming week.

Although Pitalwalla adds that there will be a strong focus on live video streaming of prominent offline events as well, he refused to divulge the types of events that will be covered.

For the record, TAN had recently streamed the live video coverage of the TED India event (TED.Indiatimes.com), which took place on November 4-7 at the Infosys campus in Mysore.

Interestingly, the company has integrated the Live.Indiatimes.com platform with social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter. This implies that users will be enabled to upgrade or send messages to their network of friends on the above mentioned social media sites, right from inside the site.

Pitalwalla believes that social media integration will help the company to spread the word about the site as users will actively share links of Live.Indiatimes.com through Facebook and Twitter.

The company also plans to monetise its live streaming online property through advertisements. To begin with, it will offer ad options such as pre-roll, overlay, banner ads, branded video player skin and page sponsorships.

In November, TAN had announced the availability of the video content of various TV channels such as Times Now, ET Now and Zoom TV on GPRS-enabled mobile phones.