In 1998, NDTV entered into five year contract with Rupert Murdoch's Star Network. Under the terms of the agreement, NDTV would produce all news content for the network, while News Television India (subsidiary of Murdoch's News Corporation) would finance the endeavor"." The CEO of Star India had stated that NDTV was an obvious choice for a partnership due its recognition and infrastructure. Star News was launched in February 1998 and was the first independent 24x7 news channel in India. It was a bilingual channel and aired both Hindi and English language programs. NDTV productions were slotted on two 9:00 pm news bulletins in the channels of Star Plus and Star World. In 1999, NDTV launched its own news website called ndtv.com which streamed live webcasts of its productions and generated 55,000 daily views within a month of its launch. Over the following years, it also made its first foray into regional markets and began a Tamil language news bulletin on Vijay TV, a channel owned by the Star Network.