Media Coverage of the Royal Wedding

The Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton captivated the world last Friday.  At least it seemed that way.  More than 7,000 press credentials were issued for the wedding.  More than 20 make shift broadcast booths were built in a temporary structure outside of Buckingham Palace for foreign media to capture “the kiss”. 

Eleven U.S. networks carried the entire wedding festivities including E!, TLC, CNN, ABC, CBS, NBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, Univision, Fox News Channel and BBC America.  According to Neilson, an average of 22.8 million US viewers tuned in for the actual ceremony between 5 – 6:15 a.m. central time.  And that’s just the tv coverage. 

Twitter has reported that there were 2.6 million Tweets on Friday about the wedding.    Facebook estimates that 1.953 million U.S. users and 1.004 million British users posted updates about the wedding.  Most every print and on-line newspaper covered the story in some form or fashion.

I have to admit, I was one of those people who got up at 3 a.m. to watch, just as I did when Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer and when Princess Diana was laid to rest.  I wanted to see who was there, what they were wearing and what they were saying.  Only this time, I flipped between several television channels, posted comments on my Facebook page throughout the wedding and texted my friends to see what they thought. 

Why are we so intrigued with these Royals?  For me, it’s about the fairy tale.  The Queen, Prince and Princess, the palace and all of the pomp and circumstance make me happy.  They transport me to a different time and place.  So for that, I’m grateful for the media.