Deadline: Queen Elizabeth II’s Funeral Watched By 37.5M Viewers In UK

Story from Deadline:

Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral was watched by a peak of around 37.5M UK viewers yesterday and 27M tuned in for the procession.

The peak was recorded across the BBC, ITV, Sky and other channels’ broadcasts, the biggest audience for a UK TV broadcast in history.

The audience was higher than the circa-30M who tuned in for Princess Diana’s funeral in 1997 and ahead of the Queen’s husband Prince Philip and the Queen Mother. The number equates to unique viewers who watched for at least three minutes.

For the procession, 18M watched on BBC One, 4.5M on ITV, 1.7M on BBC Two and 1.5M combined on BBC News and Sky News, according to Barb data provided by overnights.tv

The funeral was shown on the majority of UK channels. There was an advertising blackout and virtually all programing was disrupted, with Channel 4 changing its schedules and Paramount-owned Channel 5 opting to show The Emoji Movie. TV schedules are now expected to return to normal after 10 days of disruption since the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday September 8, aged 96.

The show was broadcast around the world and estimates have placed the global figure at around 4BN.

The broadcast lasted virtually all day, with the funeral procession starting at 11 a.m. BST (3 a.m. PT) and ending with a private service several hours later.

The event was attended by world leaders including Joe Biden, Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau along with the Queen’s family and celebrities including Killing Eve star Sandra Oh and TV adventurer Bear Grylls.

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