BBC dominates as 18m tune in for Royal Wedding
May 21, 2018
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Royal Wedding between Meghan Markle and Prince Harry on May 19th proved to be the biggest UK TV event of the year so far. However, viewing numbers were slightly down from the 2011 Royal Wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William.
BBC One’s coverage of the event pulled in an average audience of 8.7 million viewers between 9am and 2pm. The audience hit a peak of 13.1 million during the ceremony at just after 12:30pm.
ITV’s coverage waas a distant second, averaging 2.5 million viewers with a peak audience of 3.6 million.
Sky News, BBC News and Sky One’s coverage were each seen by averages of fewer than 500,000 viewers. Across all channels, the total viewers hit a peak audience of around 18 million. The 2011 Royal Wedding between Kate Middleton and Prince William drew a peak audience of over 19 million.
The FA Cup Final between Chelsea and Manchester United, which aired on BBC One later in the day, averaged 6.7 million viewers – peaking with 8.7 million.
The global TV audience for the Royal Wedding, although difficult to estimate, is believed to be in the region of 2 billion.
Twitter also saw huge interest in the wedding, with 3.4 million tweets sent during the ceremony, according to the social network. During the sermon by US bishop Michael Curry, around 40,000 tweets per minute were posted.