ABC, CBS in Talks to Share News Resources

ABC News and CBS News, which each held separate talks with CNN over the summer about possible ways to combine some newsgathering operations to save money, are now also talking to each other.

The discussions began before Sept. 11 but have taken on new importance in the wake of the heightened costs of covering the terrorist attacks of that date and the subsequent war in Afghanistan, as well as the rapidly softening advertising market.

Nonetheless, executives at ABC and CBS described the negotiations, first reported in the New York Times, as still preliminary. Both ABC and CBS declined to comment.

Moreover, CNN and CBS, which stopped talking after Sept. 11 because both were focused on covering the war, have now resumed their own discussions, according to executives.

CNN and ABC have not revived talks, said an executive familiar with the matter.

ABC and CBS have already been sharing some satellite transmission facilities in the Afghanistan region, cooperation made possible because of new technology that allows more than one video package to be transmitted at one time.

The new discussions are focused on seeing if the two rivals can find ways to extend that cooperation around the world, outside the U.S., sharing equipment and office space and teaming up to share camera crews on some stories.

Unlike with the CNN discussions, however, there has been no thought of ABC and CBS sharing editorial personnel, including correspondents.

Neither ABC nor CBS has a 24-hour news channel, and the advantage of one of them doing a deal with CNN would be a heightened on-air presence, as well as the cost savings.

Because it is focused outside the U.S., any deal is unlikely to affect a separate arrangement among CBS, ABC and Fox News Channel, dubbed the Network News Service, to share video footage from around the U.S.

But it would be potentially positive for Fox, by denying its rival CNN an alliance with a broadcast network.