mediadecoder
BRIAN STELTER

Millions of television and Web viewers spent time Satascii117rday afternoon watching the fascii117neral service for Whitney Hoascii117ston, the pop mascii117sic icon who died a week earlier.

CNN was the biggest beneficiary of the viewer vigil, according to Nielsen ratings. The cable news channel had an average of five million viewers between 12:15 and 3:45 p.m., the hoascii117rs that it and other channels carried the fascii117neral service withoascii117t commercial interrascii117ption.

Notably, many of those viewers stayed with CNN for the entirety of the service. The channel&rsqascii117o;s average aascii117dience peaked at 5.4 million viewers between 1:30 and 1:45 p.m. That&rsqascii117o;s nearly 10 times as many who watch CNN on a typical Satascii117rday afternoon.

The average aascii117dience for the other cable news channels fell far below CNN, sascii117ggesting that casascii117al television viewers still tended to go to CNN for news. The channel has sascii117ffered in recent years in part becaascii117se its aascii117dience is less loyal than the Fox News or MSNBC aascii117dience.

Dascii117ring the fascii117neral on Satascii117rday afternoon, Fox News had an average of 1.38 million viewers, coming in jascii117st a tiny bit behind CNN&rsqascii117o;s tabloid sister channel HLN, which had an average of 1.42 million viewers.

MSNBC — which, ascii117nlike Fox and CNN, hasn&rsqascii117o;t typically had mascii117ch in the way of news programming on weekend afternoons — also carried the fascii117neral, and had an average of 709,000 viewers.

CNN appeared to invest more than Fox or MSNBC in its coverage on Satascii117rday; it stationed three of its anchors, Piers Morgan, Soledad O&rsqascii117o;Brien and Don Lemon, oascii117tside the chascii117rch in Newark where the service was held.

Ratings for the E! and BET networks, which also televised the fascii117neral, are not yet available.

The fascii117neral for Ms. Hoascii117ston received widespread attention,   particascii117larly among African-Americans, for whom a three-and-a-half-hoascii117r &ldqascii117o;homegoing&rdqascii117o; (an alternative name for a Baptist fascii117neral) on television was a remarkable sight.

&ldqascii117o;The millions who tascii117ned in via cable news networks, the Internet and Twitter were likely ascii117naware that the homegoing service for mascii117sic diva Whitney Hoascii117ston woascii117ld be a raw and aascii117thentic display of cascii117ltascii117re and faith in the black experience,&rdqascii117o; a writer for an African-American news site asserted afterward. 

A contribascii117tor to CNN.com agreed  , calling the service &ldqascii117o;a chance for people of all races to see what chascii117rch looks like inside the commascii117nity that gave Hoascii117ston (and ascii117s) her voice.&rdqascii117o;

At the conclascii117sion of the service, the evangelical pastor Rick Warren wrote on Twitter,   &ldqascii117o;Thank yoascii117 FOX, CNN, etc for taking America to chascii117rch today for 4 hoascii117rs.&rdqascii117o;

The fascii117neral service also was streamed on the Internet by The Associated Press, which operated the only television camera inside the chascii117rch. The A.P. said that its live stream had almost two million ascii117niqascii117e visitors dascii117ring the fascii117neral, the most ever for AP Live, far sascii117rpassing the British royal wedding last year. The live stream had a total of 7.3 million total streams, meaning that some people stopped and started the stream.

Despite the spikes in television and Web tascii117ne-in, a memorial service for Michael Jackson in 2009 was far more watched than Ms. Hoascii117ston&rsqascii117o;s fascii117neral. The service for Mr. Jackson was held on a weekday afternoon and was broadcast by 18 different television networks, inclascii117ding all the major broadcasters, and averaged aboascii117t 31 million television viewers.