The accident had happened at 12.30am Paris time, which was 8.30am Sunday morning Melbourne time. By noon Diana had been pronounced dead, and it was released publicly just before 2pm.
The fan recalled: “I thought if it was true, there would be some sort of announcement. Sure enough, about five minutes later an announcement on the screen said: ‘The French government has just announced that Diana, Princess of Wales, has died this morning as a result of a car crash in a Paris tunnel.’
Nine afternoon rolling coverage - after that initial news flash I posted above, Nine went back to the swimming but then came back with another news flash then rolling coverage.
Rolling coverage usually meant linking to and switching between overseas rolling coverage - CNN, BBC, Sky. Very little was instigated or analysed in Australia.
Most TV newsrooms (here) just weren’t set up for it. It was also a lot harder to do rolling coverage back then compered to now. Heck, most news presenters didn’t even know how to go off script or tread water.
Maybe it was at Princes Park. But I would say both matches had the 7 news update with Peter Mitchell. Not sure if the update was broadcast during or prior to the matches.
