U News

Royal wedding more than 24.5 million UK viewers, Prince William and Kate Middleton's Royal Wedding was watched by more than 24 million terrestrial TV viewers in the UK, according to overnight estimates from industry body Barb.

The BBC achieved a large share of the UK viewing figures for Friday's (April 29) ceremony, with a peak figure of 20 million tuning in to the corporation's broadcast of the Westminster Abbey service.

More than 34 million people caught at least some of the Royal Wedding coverage through the BBC, including on its iPlayer service, reports BBC News.

Sky News said it had a peak of 661,000 viewers at the start of the wedding ceremony, while BBC Two, Channel 4 and Five only made up 1 per cent of the audience as the nuptials began.

William and Kate's service is now in the all-time top 10 programmes in the UK, but drew less viewers than the 1966 World Cup Final (32.3 million) and Princess Diana's funeral in 1997 (32.1 million).