PIB audiuo-visual launched for electronic media

New Delhi, Sep 25: Government's media wing Press Information Bureau will now supply news in the audio-visual form too to cater to the growing need of 24-TV channels and other forms of the electronic media.

''It is an step to a revolution, a great jump in meeting the challenge of 24-hour broadcasts,'' said Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi after inaugurating the audio-visual service.

He said today people wanted an immediate update on any event or activities and that could be given only by the electronic media, so the PIB audio-visual service would fill in a great void as far as the news related to the Government was concerned.

The web cast will be available on PIB website http://pib.nic.in and can be downloaded for use.

In due course, such stories in Audio Visual form will also be supplied in DVD formats. The effort is expected to facilitate the electronic media, especially regional and local news channels in receiving footage on important Government events, said Information and Broadcasting Secretary SK Arora.

He said the PIB will digitise the material available in its library and put it on its website.

''Very rare photographs of the last 50 to 60 years will now available to the electronic media once the digitisation takes place,'' he said.

Earlier, Director, Media and Communication of the PIB Deepak Sandhu said the visual content will be in a free-view and down load format, which will be of a maximum of two-minute duration so that the download does not take much of time.

UNI