(25 August 2007 5:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Indian minister for Person of Indian Origin Vayalar Ravi has launched pioTV.com as a digital integrated platform for any expatriate community in the world.

The site is an amalgamation of technologies and content, making it a one-stop shop IPTV platform equipped with television, community making and YouTube model specifically for the Indian diaspora pegged at an estimated 50 million people.

"The PIO (Person of Indian Origin) community across the world is the richest expatriate community anywhere in the world and its total riches amount to one trillion dollar, which I am told is the annual GDP of India, and our products and services are modulated for them," said pioTV.com president and CEO Munish Gupta.

The company is tying up with the Global Organisation of Persons Of Indian Origin (GOPIO) which would soon expand its market, giving the various chapters their place on the site, enabling them to upload their own content there.

"We shall not govern, but definitely monitor the site to keep it clean and to ensure that the values of democracy and secularism are not violated," he clarified. He added that PIOTV's office has suitable content editors working around the clock.

The business and advertising community has already shown a keen interest with Yahoo and Tyroo, as well as Indian advertising firm Prachar Bharati already taking up ad space on the site apart from the large business community present at the launch.

Asserting that pioTV.com was not just a portal, Gupta said that he along with his partner Abhesh Verma (COO and VP) have technology and content to create the site.

Gupta read out the list of facilities on the site which would include:

• Live TV streaming from PIOTV, which is an online content developing company that preceded the creation of the portal, that makes it an IPTV player
  
  
• Archival material that can be downloaded on demand, including Bollywood films which have been acquired - on a revenue sharing basis - and can be seen on the site
  
  
• Content that can be downloaded on any platform, on TV sets, laptops or mobile phones, wherever the facilities are available on sufficient bandwidth
  
  
• Community building which aims at a two-way PIO-to-PIO and PIO-to-Indians dialogue
  
  
• Live TV streaming from Indian channels which are content partners of www.pioTV.com one of them being North East Television, a 24x7 news channel, which is already being seen through pioTV.com, according to the owner of the channel Manoranjana Sinh
  
  
• Talent hunt for Bollywood from among the PIO community
  
  
• Free uploading of content in video and text news items as well as entertainment content developed by PIO
  communities anywhere in the world
  
  
• Numerology and horoscope and match making on request

Gupta said that the revenue model is clear but not the targets. There would be advertisements, with Indian advertisers looking at the massive PIO market, as well as foreign companies looking at Internet advertising for Indians in India.

People can watch the live streaming free of cost, but would need to pay for downloading and viewing at their leisure, and packages would be announced soon.

Gupta said that from India, travel companies, food items, spices, software services, jewellery, Indian dresses, TV channels and realtors would be main advertisers on the site. He emphasised that all these companies know the depth of pocket of this community.

In the next few months the site will add an online shopping plaza for products and services for the PIO community he said.