NEW DELHI: Getting tech savvy and in a bid to attract those more prone to watching news using their computers than the TV set, Zee News will be starting video streaming on zeenews.com.
Laxmi N Goel director, News Group Zee Telefilms
"The process of streaming news on the news portal with live videos is ready to be launched. If not today, over the next few days we will introduce this feature on the Zee News site," Laxmi N Goel, director, News Group of Zee Telefilms, told indiantelevision.com yesterday.
Goel, one of the brothers of Zee promoter Subhash Chandra, took over as the head of Zee News a few months ago after its then head Sanjay Pugalia quit the company to join the Rupert Murdoch-controlled Star's news division as director news in India.
Though others like NDTV, contracted to supply content for Star News channel, had started streaming video on their sites (ndtv.com), Zee News has woken up to the wonders of technology now.
Pointing out that it better to be late than never in doing it, Goel said that on an average the Zee News' site got between 90-95,000 hits daily. "After we introduce streaming, we are confident that the hits would increase tremendously," he added.
Though a country-wise break-up of hits was not available, it is learnt that the Zee News site gets more hits from the US. "Since it is our aim to cater to the needs of Indians within the country and the Indian diaspora around the globe, video streaming would add another dimension to that effort," Goel said.
Goel, though a bit guarded on the plans and designs that he has for Zee News, admitted that over the next few months the look of the news channel would change and some new programmes would be added.
At one time considered the uncrowned king of news broadcasting, catering to the Hindi-speaking populace of India, Zee News in recent times has lost some ground. Especially with the entry of newer players like Aaj Tak from the India Today Group stable. At least various studies on market share indicate this.