<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>Digital: BBC Hindi to share content with MSN India</B></FONT>

The portal says it wants to offer “Hindi content with an international perspective” because 30 per cent of its audience is from abroad

MSN India has entered into a partnership with BBC World Service for sharing BBC Hindi’s content on its Hindi portal. News and astrology from the BBC Hindi portal will now be available on MSN Hindi, which was launched in 2006.

With a growing number of India-based Hindi portals in the country, why did MSN India choose BBC Hindi? “We want to offer Hindi content with an international perspective and BBC Hindi is a credible source for that,” explains Krishna Prasad, executive producer of MSN India. He adds that the portal gets 30 per cent of its audience from abroad.

<FONT COLOR="#FF0033"><B>Digital: BBC Hindi to share content with MSN India</B></FONT>

Krishna Prasad

Prasad adds that the MSN Hindi portal has seen steady growth since its launch, and contributes about 12 per cent to MSN India’s traffic – poised at about 18 million unique users per month.

“Thanks to our partnership with MSN India, more Hindi-speakers around the world will have the opportunity to enjoy top-quality news and information from BBChindi.com,” said Vineeta Dwivedi, India business development manager, BBC World Service, in a statement.

BBC Hindi reports stories from London and New Delhi and also has audio and video content. The website has well-known names such as former prime minister IK Gujral and actor Manoj Bajpai writing for it.

MSN Hindi

Though MSN has 30 content partnerships on its MSN India portal (in English), this is the first time it has done so for a regional portal. The content for the Hindi and other regional portals (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam) comes largely from MSN’s editorial staff.

Plans are afoot to take a similar initiative for the other regional portals. Prasad adds that the company is in talks with regional television channels for multimedia content.

Have news to share? Write to us atnewsteam@afaqs.com