he largest international audience in television history - an estimated 2.5 billion viewers - watched on TVs from tiny towns in Iceland to giant screens in Hong Kong, as the body of Princess Diana was laid to rest yesterday.
The BBC provided coverage to nearly 200 countries in 44 languages - the biggest live broadcast in its 75-year history. Its main rival, Independent Television News, also relayed coverage to major channels in the United States, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and Germany.
The ground rules were set early, when the networks agreed not to show members of the royal family or the Spencers while they were in their seats in Westminster Abbey.
While NBC, CBS, CNN, Fox, C-Span, Arts & Entertainment, and dozens of other networks covered the somber proceedings, ABC News, anchored by the sensitive but unsentimental Peter Jennings, displayed a perspective and grace clearly superior to the competition.
No network handled England's unusual show of emotion better than ABC.
Except for his brief adoption of a Scottish accent as mournful bagpipers accompanied the cortege, Jennings respectfully gave ABC's coverage the depth of history rather than the narrow superficiality of a current event.
CBS News, which was two hours late in reporting the Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana, continued its slide with Dan Rather's tired, preachy narration. Rather, in a tone more suggestive of a moral philosopher than a working journalist, sought out the treacle even when questioning longtime colleague Tom Fenton about his reaction to the morning's events. And just before signing off at 11 a.m., Rather compared Earl Spencer's speech to Marc Antony standing over the body of Caesar in Shakespeare's Globe Theater. Heaven knows where that analogy came from.
NBC's Tom Brokaw, who referred to the funeral as the most significant event in the history of Westminster Abbey until reminded of the coronation of William the Conquerer in 1066, was limply assisted by New Yorker editor Tina Brown. At 8:30 a.m., NBC also had the distinction of being the first network to break away for a commercial.
Clearly aware of the international implications, ABC broadened its coverage by cutting away to audiences around the world, while others made do with static shots from the balcony of Westminster Abbey. The stark black-and-white solemnity of those allowed into Westminster Abbey contrasted with the colorful emotion of those gathered outside, and said more about the tradition and class tension between the royal family and the so-called commoners than all the TV commentators combined.
While dignifying the proceedings, Jennings didn't treat the funeral as a canonization. He boldly raised questions about Diana's darker side and explained the relationship between Prince Charles and Camilla Parker-Bowles without ever sliding into sensationalism.
Buoyed by several authors - Andrew Morton, who wrote the 1992 best-selling biography ''Diana: Her True Story,'' Anthony Holden, who writes about the House of Windsor, and Sarah Bradford, author of a biography of Queen Elizabeth II - ABC created a historical context for the event without oversimplifying or exaggerating Diana's contribution to Britain's identity.
In Boston, Channel 7 cut in for a local angle at 10 a.m., with Dan Hausle reporting live from London. Hausle, to his credit, pointed out that Queen Elizabeth II nodded in respect as Diana's coffin passed on its way into Westminster Abbey.
Remarkably absent from the coverage was any sighting of the people who made Diana ''the most hunted person of the modern age,'' as her brother put it in his remarkable eulogy. Her funeral was notably devoid of those who stalked her most voraciously, the paparazzi.
