STORY:
ABC Finalizing Millennium Broadcast Plans

Peter Jennings to anchor 22-hour long broadcast

ABC-TV has begun a promotional push for "ABC 2000", its own 22-hour long New Year's Eve broadcast by parading out anchorman Peter Jennings to talk about it. Jennings will anchor the broadcast from New York that will be competing with two other marathon millennium broadcasts.

The network has forged a partnership with broadcasters from 60 countries to cover New Year's Eve events around the world. Jennings told reporters that ABC's coverage will be a "celebration of mankind's accomplishments in the last 100 years and its anticipation for the next 100 years".

It appears everyone at ABC's news division will be working long hours for the mammoth broadcast except ABC's most visible female anchor Barbara Walters. Long ago, Walters had booked a millennium cruise near the International Dateline as a vacation. According to news sources, she has agreed to be a team player and do some reports via satellite from her cruise liner.

Since ABC's show is only 22 hours, it obviously can't cover New Year' Eve live in every time zone on earth. The network plans to videotape and replay coverage in countries like New Zealand where the year 2000 will hit first. ABC 2000 will be a mixture of entertainment and news with stories ranging from the ridiculous to Y2K problems hitting anywhere in the world.

ABC's 22 hour long show is shorter than the 27-hour program being produced by the Millennium Television Network and a 30-hour program being produced by a consortium of broadcasters lead by the BBC and PBS. The MTN program will air in the domestic US by the PAX-TV network.

DATE: 07/29/99

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