Royal Wedding tops TV ratings in 2011
The Royal Wedding was the most popular TV programme in 2011 with an average of 13.59 million viewers on BBC One and BBC HD alone, according to Barb’s TV ratings.
If you combine all the Royal Wedding coverage across 10 channels, including the BBC, ITV, BBC News and Sky News, the total average audience for Will and Kate’s big day topped 26 million – and that is not including the number of viewers crowding around public screens (such as the hundreds of thousands gathered in Hyde Park).
Over 93% of the available audience watched the ceremony, according to Barb estimates. It was one of the biggest audiences in UK television history, behind England’s 1966 World Cup win (32.3 million viewers); Princess Diana’s funeral (32.1 million); Eastenders – when Den divorced Angie (30.1 million); and Charles and Diana’s wedding (28.4 million). The Royal Wedding is expected to have been watched by a global audience of around two billion people.
2011: Top 10 programmes
- The Royal Wedding – 13.59m (29 Apr, BBC One)
- The X Factor Results – 13.46m (11 Dec, ITV1)
- Strictly Come Dancing Final – 13.34m (17 Dec, BBC One)
- The X Factor – 12.92m (2 Oct, ITV1)
- Britain’s Got Talent Final Result – 12.63m (4 Jun, ITV1)
- Coronation Street – 12.56m (14 Feb ITV1)
- I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here! – 12.47m (13 Nov, ITV1)
- Britain’s Got Talent Final – 12.22 (4 Jun, ITV1)
- Downton Abbey – 12.15m (11 Nov, ITV1)
- EastEnders – 11.42m (3 Jan, BBC One)
Source: BARB
TV ratings have not gone down since Barb started measuring viewing on 1 August 1981 but ratings are now split among many channels (and platforms). When Barb was first set up it measured viewing on just three channels – BBC One, BBC Two and ITV. In 1991 it analysed 16 channels and a decade later, 131. Last year it measured 280 channels and there are hundreds more it does not include.
In this article, the BBC’s Torin Douglas – who spoke at MediaTel Group’s The Year Ahead event last week – writes about the difficulties facing ratings compilers in the digital age.
TV ratings are available in mediatel.co.uk’s TV Database, with all BARB registered subscribers able to view reports for terrestrial networks and key multi-channel stations.