26.2 million expected to watch Royal Wedding survey reveals
26.2 million people are expected to watch the Royal Wedding later this month, making the most watched event of the last decade, new research has found.
A survey conducted by TNS Omnibus found that over half (52%) the UK will watch the wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton on 29 April, and is expected to surpass the 21.3 million who watched the ‘final’ episode of Only Fools and Horses on 12 November 2001, and the final of last year’s X Factor at 17.7 million.
The wedding is however not expected to reach the audience that watch the wedding of Prince William’s parents, Prince Charles and Princes Diana in 1981, which had an audience of 28.4 million.
The survey also found that £195 million will be spent on snacks and drinks for the occasion, and that 7.7 million people are set to take the whole week off work as a result of the wedding.
Sue Homeyard from TNS Omnibus analysed the responses of over 6,600 people across six countries about the Royal Wedding, including the UK, USA, Germany and France.
“Major Royal and sporting events, season finales and soap specials are the ones which consistently attract top viewing figures, but even by those standards this looks set to be very special. This figure shows what a momentous event this wedding will be for the UK – not to mention food and drink retailers, which will see an average spend of £30 on snacks and drinks for the show,” Homeyard explained.