The other route would be for Sony to pick up a stake in CNBC Asia which hasa 51 per cent equity in the joint venture entity, CNBC India. TV-18 owns thebalance.

Company sources, however, said Sony wanted a stake only in the Indianoutfit. "We are not interested in CNBC Asia. We want equity participation inCNBC India," a senior official in the company said.

CNBC India on Friday appointed Sony Entertainment Television for itsmarketing, cable distribution and advertising sales. It has, thus, droppedits early idea of giving the cable distribution and ad sales to TV-18. "Wethought it would be better to appoint a distribution and marketing agentthan to set up our own team," said a senior official in TV-18.

By participating in the equity, Sony wants to look after the business sideof operations while TV-18 will concentrate on creating the channel'sprogramming. A stake in CNBC India would involve the consent of threeparties - CNBC Asia, TV-18 and Sony Entertainment Television.

But if Sony picks up equity in CNBC Asia, it will not have to win theconsent of TV-18.

CNBC India will be a pay channel but the pricing is yet to be fixed, Sonychief operating officer Rajesh Pant told The Financial Express. Sony willstart distributing the channel by mid-January. Sony will pay a guaranteemoney to CNBC India but has decided not to bundle the channel with its otherproducts. Pant said the channel's reach would increase from 5.5 millionhouseholds to 16 million within the next six months.

CNBC India was also talking to Zee TV for the distribution and marketing ofits channel. Zee wanted to widen its niche channel products to strengthenits direct-to-operator service which it plans to launch in January.

The network is negotiating with foreign media companies to bring in channelson an exclusive arrangement basis. Commenting on its decision to appointSony, CNBC India CEO Haresh Chawla said, "The alliance is going to provebeneficial for both of us.

I would expect to enter into more strategic alliances as the broadcast,programming and Internet businesses converge." CNBC had earlier decided notto renew its distribution contract with Star TV as it was not happy with theway Star price-packaged CNBC along with its other pay channels. Besides,SitiCable dropped the channel from its network when Star started asking fora subscription fee. Zee's cable distribution arm was promoting the channelin its network but was not paying a fee. "Our penetration was gettingaffected," a senior CNBC India official said.