The Princess Diana Memorial Concert, which is to be held on Saturday 27 June in Althorp Park, will only be available to cable viewers and for a pay-per-view charge of £5.99. Earl Spencer has negotiated the deal himself, claiming that the sale of live and highlight rights separately increases the amount of revenue generated from the event for the Princess Diana Memorial Fund.
Front Row, the company which has secured the rights, is a cable consortium comprising Telewest, NTL, General Cable and Diamond Cable (see Cable Consortium Seals Buena Vista Deal). It currently provides movies on-demand to approximately two and half million UK cable homes and is offering the Memorial Concert to around one million of its customers.
The BBC has gained the rights to broadcast the concert’s highlights four days later on 1 July.
The deal has evoked negative feelings from a number of figures who see it as a further commercialisation of Diana’s death. It has also been argued that the concert broadcast should be preserved from the pay-per-view system as it is a ‘national event’.
Front Row: 0171 323 1880
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