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Once the polls close, news networks will start projecting the winner of a state, sometimes almost instantly.

Do they collaborate with other news networks when projecting the winner or do they project the winner independently? For example, CNN projected the winner, do ABC News or NBC also project it?

Note: I'm not asking about how do they do it, e.g. using exit polls, etc. Just want to know if all news networks project the winner together or independently.

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Sometimes one news organization will explicitly outsource declaring winners to another, as when the New York Times relies on AP for that task. Otherwise, if news organizations are collaborating, they don't want us to know that.

Additionally, if one news organization, say MSNBC, calls the result of a race, another one, say CNN, which is supposed to be operating independently, may feel pressure to also call the race. If they don't have a compelling reason not to call the race, it is plausible that they might be inclined to call it so as not to seem behind the curve. In this situation one does see news anchors comment about why they have not called the race, indicating they are under a certain pressure to justify their non-call.

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    AP is already a collaboration among media organizations, by design
    – user4012
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 12:03
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    No AP is not a collaboration among media organizations. Rather it is a separate news organization from which others news organizations source content.
    – user9790
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 12:55
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    "AP's members are U.S. newspapers and broadcasters. There are currently around 1,400 U.S. daily newspaper members and thousands of television and radio broadcast members." From here
    – user5155
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 15:12
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    Yeah, it's a subscription service. Newspapers don't collaborate with them on stories.
    – user9790
    Commented Nov 7, 2016 at 15:34
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    The content of AP stories is not written by AP staff. When you become an AP member, you agree to make your content available through their service.
    – indigochild
    Commented Nov 8, 2016 at 3:36
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CNN explains how they did it in 2008. They share the basic data, relying on services like the Associated Press and Edison Media Research for that.

The Associated Press: The Associated Press will provide vote totals for each race. The AP will be gathering numbers via stringers based in each county or other jurisdiction where votes are tabulated.

Edison Media Research: To assist CNN in collecting and evaluating this information, CNN, the other television networks and The Associated Press have employed Edison Media Research (EMR). In previous elections, this firm has assisted CNN in projecting winners in state and national races. EMR will conduct exit polls, which ask voters their opinion on a variety of relevant issues, determine how they voted, and ask a number of demographic questions to allow analysis of voting patterns by group.

Using exit poll results, scientifically selected representative precincts, vote results from The AP, and a number of sophisticated analysis techniques, EMR also recommends projections of a winner for each race it covers.

Each network can also call the race on its own. But since they share the data sources and don't want to be last to report the news, there is pressure to agree.

In 2000, the networks called Florida for both Gore and Bush before finding out that it was within the recount margin. This was prior to EMR. The service that year was called Voter News Service.

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