As if that was not enough, DD has now signed an agreement to supplement its global coverage," the official said, adding: "The deal will cost over $80,000 per year." According to him, the necessity of the agreement, which was signed recently, is being questioned by several top DD executives. Doordarshan already subscribes to Reuter Television and APTN, the new entity formed by the merger of Associated Press Television and WTN. The visuals put out by the two agencies remain unused given the slots and priority that the global items get on DD bulletins. The programmes are not even recorded most of the time, barring some extraordinary items and important newsbreaks. In fact, DD was managing with only Reuters till June when it tied up with APTN.

Moroever, DD tied up with CNN this time even after scrapping a similar agreement reached around five years ago, the official said. "Under that deal, each used the other's visuals or nartural sound which, in television parlance, means visual without voice or narration. DD even started a separate channel, DD-CNN, but the agreement fell through as none could meet the other's requirements," he said. Defending the recent deal, the DD official said that in some cases other agencies simply cannot match CNN. "Take the hijacking episode for example. CNN had a crew in Kandahar, we took the visuals from them. Moreover, there is rethinking in CNN now, they have committed to make Hindi programmes to catch the huge viewership," he said.

Meanwhile, RP- Goenka owned RPG Netcom has sent CNN in non-prime band and brought ATN World to the front. According to a senior official of the Forum of Cable Operators ((FCO), RPG Netcom was requested by the FCO members to make the exchange. "ATN World is a Bengali channel and hence it is quite natural to have a channel in West Bengal," the FCO official said.

On the other hand, Calcutta-based CNN officials said the matter is entirely beyond their control.