`PrimeTime’ scores big with Condit interview
New York-Connie Chung’s interview with Congressman Gary Condit last Thursday may not have improved his image, but it did make ABC’s “PrimeTime Thursday” the most-watched TV program of the summer and the most-watched news program since Barbara Walters’ March 1999 chat with Monica Lewinsky. “PrimeTime” attracted 23.7 million viewers and averaged a 17.2 rating/29 share, according to preliminary national data from Nielsen Media Research.
ABC affiliated stations around the country saw their late-news numbers more than double-Hearst-Argyle’s WPBF-TV in West Palm Beach, Fla., racked up an astounding 18.3/28 for its newscast following the Condit interview, which did a 25.4/39.
Meanwhile, the cable news channels did a brisk Nielsen business by talking about Ms. Chung’s interview. It was a tight race between CNN, which averaged 947,000 viewers in prime time, and Fox News Channel, which averaged 917,000 viewers in prime time; MSNBC averaged 225,000. Across five hours of live Condit programming, Fox averaged more than 1 million viewers.
Convergys to introduce new billing technology
Los Angeles-Convergys Corp., a corporate billing and customer management services provider, has developed a technology that will allow broadband service operators, including cable multiple system operators, to distribute the proceeds of a billed transaction among multiple parties, said Curt Champion, Convergys senior director of cable and broadband marketing. The “settlement”technology allows Convergys to bill multiple vendors, such as bandwidth providers and purveyors of fiber-optic networks, which is especially helpful to those offering voice-over-Internet protocol services.