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Webcasting : A new growth area
By A Special Correspondent
Project Monitor
Webcasting or streaming media as popularly known worldwide is gaining popularity among the Indian Corporates as a medium of communication. Through webcasting one can see and hear video play on the web site itself. Recently two Indian companies, viz., State Bank Of India and Bank of Baroda webcast their AGM which was watched by thousands of their shareholders all over the country.
It is just the beginning and in the coming days more and more companies are likely to resort to this medium to communicate their views to their shareholders. In the words of Pawan Bbhandari, Chief Marketing Officer, Beanbag Webcasting " It is just a matter of time before the top 200 Indian companies start providing live web cast of their quarterly and annual performance ". Incidentally, Beanbag Webcasting had webcast both the above bank events. It is in fact, one of India's leading and earliest entrant in the field of webcasting.
However, growth in the sector is hampered by the non-availability of sufficient bandwidth in the country. This problem is likely to be sorted out with the VSNL acquiring more bandwidth. Also optic fibre network which are being laid country wide is also likely to give big boost to this sector in the coming days.
As this is the cheapest and the easiest mode of communication with the select audiences, webcasting business is expected to see considerable volume growth in the coming years. In the US and UK most of the major corporates have already taken to webcasting to announce their results. "Today webcasting is the first choice media for running their investor relation programmes" says Mr Bhandari.
(16/7/01)
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