MUMBAI: No news may be good news but bad news is great news. So while Bush is chalking out his invasion plan for Iraq, the Associated Press Television News (APTN) has already made arrangements to capture the action live.
APTN is launching two extra channels under brand name APTN Direct. The video news agency will be providing the signals to the television news companies who subscribe its main satellite service - the Global Video Wire. 
According to an official release, the London based new gathering company has invested 12 months of planning and multi-million dollars in hardware, software and satellite capacity to provide live coverage in the event of a new Gulf war.

APTN Direct will be providing live coverage of events as they unfold in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Turkey, Israel, and Britain and the United States, as well as live reactions from other parts of the world.
The channels designed for the war coverage will commence its telecast at 12:30 pm on 14 March 2003 or earlier, if necessary. For the initial three months the channel will operate for 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
While the move to launch APTN Direct may be recent, the news agency has already begun transmitting news videos from Baghdad since October 2002 via a satellite uplinking truck stationed in the Iraqi capital. It has a total of 120 staff with 40 cameras deployed throughout the Middle East.
The release also claims that APTN has readied 12 satellite earth stations to the region, including five truck-mount ones. The trucks deployed are specially-constructed desert-friendly vehicles with the latest, lightweight uplinks mounted on the roof.
Meanwhile the team in the field, for maximum mobility and speed of deliver, has also been equipped with the latest software to allow them to transmit video over satellite telephones.