The network was also contracted by Doordarshan to produce its coverage of Indian general elections and budget session specials which too became widely popular. The first election result telecast produced by NDTV was that of the 1989 Indian general election, which was the first televised live coverage of an election result in India, it employed hot-lines across the country and featured visual graphics, discussions and debates. The format developed by NDTV was contrasted with the simple official announcements publicised by Doordarshan in previous elections and was adopted as a template by news broadcasters over the following decades. The terms of agreement between NDTV and Doordarshan were modified in the same year and NDTV began paying a fee for its weekly slot instead of being a contractor under the public broadcaster. During the initial years of NDTV there was a delay of 10 minutes which later shifted to five minutes between telecast and production of live news due to government restrictions.