MAM
Interest in royal wedding stays high
MUMBAI: The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now Catherine the Duchess of Cambridge, may be one of the most awaited events of the year, but couldn‘t quite beat the charm of Diana getting married to Prince Charles in 1981.
The event was watched by nearly 27 million viewers in Britain, which is way short of 28 million viewers that tuned in to see the Prince Williams‘ parents getting married.
In the UK, BBC was the overall winner with 20 million viewers, followed by ITV with 6 million, and Sky News at 661,000.
The numbers are substantial, and just marginally ahead of Only Fools Christmas special from 1996, which raked up 24.4 million.
Meanwhile, an average of 22.8 million total viewers in the US tuned in to the nuptials from Westminster Abbey in London, according to Nielsen. The event was carried by eleven stateside networks: ABC, CBS, NBC, Telemundo, Univision, BBC America, CNN, E!, Fox News Channel, MSNBC and TLC.
This number is way behind the viewership of February‘s Super Bowl, a record total of 111 million.
The tame numbers were a surprise given the predictions from some newspapers in the UK of a rating blowout. Some reports had even claimed a worldwide viewing of 3 billion — a target that would now appear outlandish.
