Seventy-five Sony XDCAMs are being delivered to CBS News in the wake of the network's decision to adopt the optical-disc system for its ENG platform. CBS News expects to be fully operational on the XDCAM platform by early next year. By 2006, CBS O&Os will also adopt the XDCAM. The estimated value of the deal is more than $20 million.

"XDCAM's ability to record on affordable removable media, transfer video files faster than real time via Ethernet and FireWire as well as play back random-access video clips makes XDCAM a perfect fit for CBS News next generation ENG format," said Frank Governale, vice president of operations for CBS News.

The optical-disc systems include 23 GB rewritable optical discs, optional 24PsF cards and optional Ethernet adaptors.

The XDCAM suite includes the PDW-510 DVCAM and the PDW-530 MPEG IMX/DVCAM optical-disc camcorders, the PDw-1500 compact deck and the PDW-V1 mobile deck.

Since April, Sony has delivered more than 400 XDCAM systems to U.S. customers. As of September, 2,000 units had been shipped worldwide.