Modi’s Independence Day speech to be live-streamed on YouTube

New Delhi, Aug 14: Public broadcaster, Prasad Bharti has tied up with Google and video sharing site, YouTube to live stream the speech of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day. The move is aimed at reaching out to the digital generation.

On August 15, in case you search for Independence Day, you will be able to see the live stream of the speech from Red Fort on the Google homepage itself. This time, you won't need to go on DD's YouTube page. Just a simple Google search will land you on DD's Live YouTube window. Similar exercise was done in USA during the coverage of their current President Donald Trump's inauguration.

Modi, this year too has asked people to send in ideas on the Narendra Modi App for the speech.

On the eve of the Independence Day, President Ram Nath Kovind will address the nation, a statement issued today by the Rashtrapati Bhavan said.The address will be broadcast from 7:00 pm on the entire national network of the All India Radio (AIR) and telecast over all the channels of Doordarshan in Hindi followed by the English version, it said.

The broadcast of the address in Hindi and English will be followed by broadcast in regional channels of Doordarshan, the statement said.

"The AIR will broadcast regional language versions from 8:00 pm onwards on its respective regional networks," it said.

Going digital:

For generation X and millenials, the name Doordarshan has a nostalgic and emotional connect as they grew up watching it. In their formation years, Doordarshan contributed to their social and cultural awareness as much as school and college contributed to their intellectual growth. But as 2000s witnessed the entry of a plethora of private channels in the TV industry, for post-millenials, Doordarshan became just another but credible TV name.

To bridge this gap and to establish brand Doordarshan for today's youth, a cultural shift was required in the organisation. Hence Prasar Bharati, over last one year, has made great strides in marking a huge digital presence across the country, with more than 37 active YouTube Channels and 250 Twitter handles. The power of this digital network couldn't have been better leveraged than in the coverage of important national events like Republic Day and Independence Day.

Last Independence Day and Republic Day celebrations coverage on DD's YouTube network got more than 1 million and 3 million views respectively.

How could the Independence Day celebrations be complete without the patriotic songs accentuating the glories of our freedom fighters and struggle of our nation so far! So, Doordarshan brings to you a breath of fresh air with a brand new patriotic song sung by legendary singer Shankar Mahadevan only for DD viewers.

Doordarshan says that it could not have brought all these Independence Day specials to the tech-savvy smart-phone generation without a mobile app. Hence, on the new version of All India Radio android app, you can listen to the entire live Independence Day programmes, including Prime Minister Modi's speech. The app has everything that the entire Prasar Bharati (DD & AIR) network has to offer, from breaking news, live radio channels and Twitter feed to old classic radio magazines.