The redesign of NDTV.com has gone live, and as a change in policy, live streaming of video content from their English news channel, NDTV 24x7 is no longer behind a paid subscription wall. The NDTV video stream was earlier priced at $5.60 per month, or $56 for the year.
I think this change has been influenced by GBN offering free video streaming online for CNN-IBN and IBN7. Incidentally, I could only hear the audio of GBN’s Windows Media based streams. NDTV’s video stream, however, is flash based. Also, I wonder if there are plans to serve different ads for the Internet…NDTV Media already serves video ads online on Desktop TV.
Access to video content at NDTV is also no longer behind a subscription wall, and the video content loads in the same page. Where I think IBNLive’s (flash based) video content has an edge is that they allow users to embed videos on their blogs or forums, and NDTV would do well to adopt that.
NDTV.com is allowing customization of the index page (add and remove sections displayed): they’re calling it ‘My News’ and I initially mistook it for the ‘My News’ that they have on TV, which allows users to vote for news via SMS. The new design looks far more readable, and the interactive section (blogs, specials, forums, hot debates) is prominently displayed. Other NDTV sites, however, are yet to receive a makeover.