Viewing figures for the Queen’s state funeral have been released, with the estimated figure lower than the number of people who tuned in to watch Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997.
Monday’s ceremonies were watched by a peak of 29 million TV viewers in the UK, with the vast majority choosing the BBC’s coverage.
The figure is also slightly below both the 29.85 million who watched the Euro 2020 final between England and Italy, and the all-time high of 32.3 million during the 1966 World Cup Final.
The peak of 29 million TV viewers is one of the UK’s biggest audiences of all time, but less than the 32 million who watched Diana’s funeral.
The “overnight” figures from ratings body Barb are only a snapshot of the total number who watched the events – with calculations complicated by the number of channels broadcasting the funeral.
They do not include those watching via iPlayer on laptops and mobile devices, as well as the audience watching communally in pubs, cinemas and care homes. Some 10 million people watched the BBC’s coverage on YouTube with more following events on TikTok.
The BBC’s coverage, presented by Huw Edwards in London and Kirsty Young from Windsor, was seen by 19.5 million on BBC One, with a further two million watching the same programme on BBC Two, while 831,000 chose the BBC News channel.
The BBC said the funeral marked BBC One’s biggest viewing day since the 2012 Olympics closing ceremony.
A spokesperson said: “The majority of the UK public – 32.5 million – turned to BBC coverage of the state funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Her Majesty the Queen lying in state was streamed 25 million times across BBC online.”
ITV’s broadcast, fronted by Tom Bradby and Julie Etchingham, was watched by 5.34 million. Sky News attracted 934,000 viewers.
Viewing figures for the funeral were delayed due to the complexity of calculating the total figure.
Many channels that would not ordinarily show current affairs broadcast the funeral. For example, 170,000 people watched the funeral on Sky Sports Main Event.
Across all channels, the funeral accounted for a 95 per cent share, with very few major channels not showing it. Channel 5 opted against it, instead showing children’s films, including The Emoji Movie.
Unsubstantiated claims that the worldwide viewing total could reach 4.1 billion are likely to prove exaggerated, with a global figure expected to settle at about 300 million to 500 million people.
A 4.1 billion figure would have represented more than half of the global population.
The first global viewing figures arrived from Australia, where the television audience peaked at 3.46 million.
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