Funeral fixes TV nation

33 million in U.S. watch Diana rites

By VARIETY STAFF

NEW YORK --- National ratings for coverage of Princess Diana's funeral confirm that unprecedented numbers of U.S. viewers tuned in to the early morning memorial.

From 3 to 5 a.m. (PDT), the core of the funeral coverage, NBC led the field in households with an 8.4 rating and a 27 share; ABC did a 7.9/25; CBS had a 4.6/14; and Fox Broadcasting earned a 1.5/5.

Among cable webs, CNN had a 3.3 national rating (4.5 in its universe of 71 million homes); MSNBC did a 1.0 national rating (2.8 in its coverage area); and Fox News Channel an 0.2 national rating (0.7 in its coverage area).

Each national rating point is equivalent to 980,000 households.

In total viewers, ABC claimed the advantage, with 10.2 million to NBC's 9.8 million, CBS' 5.9 million and Fox's 2.1 million.

Nielsen estimates that combined broadcast and cable viewership across eight networks during the two-hour time period (also including E!) generated a 26.6 household rating and an 86 share of the viewing audience, or 26.1 million households. But the total viewership estimate of 33.3 million is far below initial CBS projections of 50 million U.S. viewers.

That's because Nielsen's total audience estimates are based on "average minute" ratings, the only numbers now available, as opposed to normal program averages, which measure the number of viewers watching any part of the coverage. CBS exec VP David Poltrack believes when total ratings are available next week, "I still believe we'll get close to that (50 million) number."

Part of the discrepancy also stems from conservative Nielsen estimates that 1.27 viewers per household tuned into the coverage, vs. a 1.6 or 1.7 tuned in for other major news events including Princess Diana's 1981 wedding.

"We feel this may be an indication of peoplemeter cooperation issues," with fewer viewers likely to record their presence on meters at that early hour, Poltrack said.