Convergence in view

INTERNET

For the first time ever, the Union Budget was webcast live in India.

Union Budget 2006-07 was unique at least in one way: it was the first such government presentation to be webcast in India. It was done, of course, by private initiative. A couple of private portals webcast the budget live on their sites.

While MSN India presented the live webcast in association with LIC on www.msn.co.in, Sifymax, the broadband portal from Sify Ltd brought P Chidambaram live online in association with the National Informatics Centre (NIC) on www.sifymax.

Post-budget coverage included analyses and implications of Budget 2006, feedback from experts, live online chats on the Budget's impact on the common man, plus tools to assess the personal impact.

"Till now," says Krishna Prasad, head, programming, MSN India: "the Budget was available only on the NIC site. From our last year's Budget experiments, we realised there was a huge audience of officegoers as well as NRI audiences who were keen to watch the Budget live."

MSN claims to have acquired the necessary permission for the feed from the Lok Sabha TV and Doordarshan for a small fee. Meanwhile, SifyMax claims to have acquired exclusive permission to webcast the Budget from NIC.

Boasts Surya Mantha, senior vice-president Interactive Services, Sify: "We were the only consumer portal to provide budget news and analysis in five Indian languages: Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam."

As convergence continues, expect more live webcasts.