Prince Philip funeral: 13.6 million watch ceremony in UK

Prince Philip – The Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral was watched by more than 13 million television viewers in the UK, overnight figures showed.

The one-hour service was viewed by 11 million people on the BBC, 2.1 million on ITV, and around 450,000 on Sky.

The figures are from the official BARB overnight averages for between 15:00 BST and 16:00 on Saturday.

As well as television coverage, the Windsor service was broadcast on radio and several YouTube channels.

On that platform, the BBC’s live stream recorded 7.5 million global views by Sunday morning.

Figures for the Royal Family’s YouTube live stream were not available, but it was third on YouTube’s worldwide trending list – which uses view count as one measure – on Sunday.

A separate BBC Two funeral programme in the evening that showed an edited package of coverage was watched by 1.31 million.

In 2002, more than 10 million watched the funeral of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in the UK – though that ceremony was held on a Tuesday.

In 1997, the funeral of Diana, Princess of Wales, was watched by 31 million people – a record audience figure.

And some 13.1 million tuned into the BBC’s coverage of the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex in 2018.

On Saturday, Huw Edwards, Sophie Raworth and JJ Chalmers presented the BBC’s live coverage of the funeral from Windsor, alongside expert guests and those who knew the 99-year-old duke.

They included Sir David Attenborough, who praised the duke’s conservation work, saying: “He spoke with the passion of a man who both cared about it, and knew about it, knew about it a lot.”

Coverage included a full military procession and showed members of the Royal Family accompanying the coffin, as it made a final journey from Windsor Castle to St George’s Chapel.

ITV’s special programme, Prince Philip – a Royal Funeral, was anchored by Tom Bradby and Julie Etchingham, with contributions from Mary Nightingale and Nina Hossain.

Dermot Murnaghan led Sky News’ coverage from the castle grounds.

The service saw the Queen mourn her husband of 73 years with dignity and stoicism during an event that bore Prince Philip’s touch and celebrated his life, military service, and legacy.

Senior members of the Royal Family, including the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex – who returned from the US – were also in attendance.

The BBC attracted a record number of complaints after it changed its schedules in the immediate aftermath of the duke’s death, affecting programmes including MasterChef.

Source – https://www.bbc.co.uk/