STATIONS TO GIVE VIEWERS PLENTY; NETWORKS PLAN EARLY COVERAGE.Byline: David Bauder Associated Press Princess Diana's funeral Saturday will be broadcast live by the major television networks in the United States, with most starting coverage before dawn. The somber ceremony at Westminster Abbey will begin at 11 a.m. in London, which is 3 a.m. PDT PDT abbr. Pacific Daylight Time PDT Pacific Daylight Time PDT n abbr (US) (= Pacific Daylight Time) → hora de verano del Pacífico PDT . CNN CNN or Cable News Network Subsidiary company of Turner Broadcasting Systems. It was created by Ted Turner in 1980 to present 24-hour live news broadcasts, using satellites to transmit reports from news bureaus around the world. and Fox News Channel will begin coverage at 1 a.m. PDT, with ABC ABC in full American Broadcasting Co. Major U.S. television network. It began when the expanding national radio network NBC split into the separate Red and Blue networks in 1928. starting at 2 a.m. CBS (Cell Broadcast Service) See cell broadcast. and NBC had not made final plans Tuesday. NBC's cable sister, MSNBC MSNBC Microsoft/National Broadcasting Company , plans to start at 9 p.m. Friday and run Princess Diana coverage all night. One television executive said ratings were ``exploding'' for Diana coverage, with viewership on the Labor Day weekend up by as much as 50 percent in some periods over the same times the previous weekend. ``The general awareness of her is pretty astonishing a·ston·ish tr.v. as·ton·ished, as·ton·ish·ing, as·ton·ish·es To fill with sudden wonder or amazement. See Synonyms at surprise. , both overseas and in this country,'' said Bob Murphy, ABC's senior vice president for hard news. ``I can't remember a foreign person whose death has had the impact hers has had.'' The networks are sending their top guns to anchor the coverage - Bernard Shaw at CNN, Dan Rather at CBS, Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric at NBC and Peter Jennings, assisted by Barbara Walters, at ABC. Among special Diana coverage planned: CBS will air a special ``48 Hours'' devoted to Diana today at 6 p.m., and wrap up funeral coverage with a Rather-anchored special Saturday at 5 p.m. ABC's Diane Sawyer will moderate a special ``PrimeTime Live'' town meeting on paparazzi pa·pa·raz·zo n. pl. pa·pa·raz·zi A freelance photographer who doggedly pursues celebrities to take candid pictures for sale to magazines and newspapers. today at 7 p.m. And Walters will be host of a special ``20/20'' edition Friday devoted largely to Diana. ``Dateline NBC'' will have a special tonight edition that will lead with Diana. Tuesday also saw the earlier-than-expected debut of Lisa McCree, who starts next week as Joan Lunden's replacement on ABC's ``Good Morning America Good Morning America is a weekday morning news show that is broadcast on the ABC television network. The show was adapted from The Morning Exchange, a morning show created by and airing on the ABC affiliate in Cleveland, Ohio, and was launched nationally as .'' McCree delivered two reports from London on Diana. ABC, CBS and NBC all ran Diana specials Sunday at 4 p.m., and preliminary Nielsen Media Research ratings in 38 cities showed the audience was 18 percent higher for those three networks during the same time period the previous week. For ABC, the audience was more than doubled. CNN's ratings just before midnight Saturday EDT, when Diana's death was announced, were as high as any basic cable rating this year, the network said. Fox News Channel is doing a favor for the non-early risers Saturday. When live funeral coverage ends, probably around 6 a.m., it will show a repeat of the ceremony, probably for about three hours. ``I think asking people to either set their VCRs or get up at four in the morning is straining colonial loyalties a little too much,'' said John Moody, vice president of news and editorial at Fox. |
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