Millions watch fairytale wedding in London

The royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton brought TV channels spectacular ratings: millions of viewers around the world watched the fairytale wedding in London from home. However, the ratings for the live broadcast were lower than experts had forecast.

The wedding of the year, as the marriage was called by many media outlets, left streets deserted in many places: countless people wanted to watch live as Prince William and Kate Middleton said “I do” last Friday. By some estimates, around two billion people around the world switched on their TVs to watch the wedding in London. TV crews and journalists from around the world were on the ground in London to report on the event.

The wedding of Prince William and his bride, Kate Middleton, was a major media event, as expected. The wedding in London was broadcast on television in almost every country in the world—including Germany, of course. Numerous German TV channels reported live from the wedding and attracted correspondingly large audiences. The channels that broadcast the wedding in London included public broadcasters ARD and ZDF, RTL, private channel SAT.1, and the two news channels n-tv and N24. ARD attracted the most viewers in terms of ratings: a 34.5 percent share of the total audience was an outstanding result.

Overall, 4.48 percent of German TV viewers watched the wedding in London. In the commercially important 14-to-49 age group, ARD recorded a 22.1 percent share with 1.08 million viewers, while ZDF had 650,000 viewers, representing a total audience share of 14.2 percent. Among the overall audience, there were 2.48 million viewers, for a 20.8 percent share.

The other TV channels also achieved particularly strong ratings—with the exception of private broadcaster SAT.1. The channel aired six hours of live coverage of the “fairytale wedding of the year” but attracted only 790,000 viewers overall, including just 370,000 in the commercially relevant target group.