Royal Wedding – BBC viewing figures

A peak audience of 20 million viewers (70% share) from across the UK tuned into the BBC’s television coverage of the Royal Wedding. And over the day 34.7 million viewers in the UK watched some of the BBC’s wedding coverage on TV.

The peak figure of 20 million tuned in at the end of the service in Westminster Abbey. The peak audience figure is based on provisional overnight figures and includes viewers across our coverage on BBC One, BBC One HD, the BBC News Channel and on BBC iPlayer.

The ceremony (11am-12.15pm) was watched by an average audience of 19.2 million (68.9% share) across BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC News Channel.

The total reach of 34.7 million watched some of the BBC’s wedding coverage in UK, including the BBC One programme and news coverage.

The average audience tuning into the BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC News Channel across the Royal Wedding programme for the pre-ceremony build up between 8-11am was 10.1 million and post ceremony from 12.15-4pm was 10.5 million. An average of 4.9m million tuned in to see highlights from the day at 8.30-10pm.

The BBC’s multimedia offering was used by millions of users across the day, both in the UK and internationally. According to provisional figures indications are that the number of page impressions for the live page of coverage online was nine million. There were approximately 9.4 million unique users internationally (5.4m) and in UK (4m) for the BBC’s News website overall with the Royal Wedding dominating the top stories.

Listeners across the country also tuned into coverage of the wedding across the BBC’s national radio networks and local stations. Audience figures for radio are reported separately.

Mark Byford, who led the BBC’s coverage of the wedding across TV, radio and online, said: “We are pleased that so many people celebrated the Royal Wedding with the BBC’s coverage across TV, radio and online. The huge audience of so many millions who shared the day with the BBC is a testament to all those involved in producing such high quality and distinctive coverage, and proves once again that the BBC is the broadcaster of choice for audiences during big national events. We are delighted with the audience and delighted with our programming.”
Notes to Editors

Please note these viewing figures do not take account of viewing by groups (such as in pubs or at community events).

The BBC One feed of the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton was streamed live to audiences across the world through BBC Worldwide’s local channels – on BBC America, in Australia and New Zealand (on UKTV, BBC World News), in Asia (on BBC Knowledge), in India (BBC Entertainment), in Latin America (BBC Entertainment), in Europe, the Middle East and Africa (Poland, Denmark, Norway and Sweden on BBC Entertainment and in South Africa on BBC Knowledge)

In addition, BBC World News broadcast the feed live in 200 countries and territories worldwide. BBC World News is available in more than 200 countries and territories worldwide, and around 300 million households and 1.8 million hotel rooms.

BBC Worldwide also licensed the Royal Wedding live feed to over 40 broadcasters in 25 territories including USA, Canada, South Africa, Australia, Latin America, Italy, Scandinavia and Singapore.