Just two days to go for the scheduled launch date of the portal, DD officials were not available for their comment on the next launch date. When contacted by The Financial Express, a Satyam official said: ``We can only say that we are hoping to launch sometime in February 2001. But that is based on the pace at which development takes place.'' The official refused to divulge anything else on the DD-Satyam project.

Replying to a query on the content and revenue-sharing strategy between Satyam and DD, the Satyam official said the strategy for the portal was being finalised. ``It's too early to divulge any details,'' he added.Since DD was already late in the day in planning a portal for itself, the current delay in the portal launch is likely to push it further back in the Web business. It may be recalled that Mr N Shekhar, president, E-Business Solutions, Satyam Infoway, had stated earlier that Satyam is creating a Web business for DD, rather than just building a portal.

The DD portal is set to begin with DDNews.com and then go on to channels such as DD Sports, DD Regional, DD Prime and others. Although Mr Shah hasn't disclosed the cost of the entire project, the first phase would cost DD Rs 3 crore.

The portal is scheduled to offer live streaming of news and interviews and also video on demand. According to Mr Shah, DD is in talks with various producers to acquire rights for streaming of audio and video of their programmes.

The text server for the portal will be based in India, whereas the audio and video servers will be positioned in the US. Initially, 2000 people will be able to access the portal simultaneously.