Seven claims royal wedding ratings win as millions tune in

The royal wedding proved a ratings bonanza, as millions of Australians joined a global audience of almost 2 billion.

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip arrive at the wedding.

The royal wedding proved a ­ratings bonanza for local ­networks, with four million Australians tuning in to watch the ceremony on free-to-air television.

The Seven Network won the ratings battle convincingly, attracting an average metropolitan audience of ­almost two million, well ahead of Nine’s 1.5 million, according to ­ratings agency OzTAM.

Defying the industry-wide downturn in linear television audiences, Saturday night’s coverage came close to matching the 2011 wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, when 4.8 million viewers tuned in across Seven, Nine, Ten and the ABC.

But the ABC’s coverage, hosted by Annabel Crabb and Jeremy Fernandez, proved far less popular this time, with just 508,000 people tuning in compared with the 1.2 million for the 2011 royal wedding.

One thing that irked viewers was when the ABC missed Prince Harry and Prince William’s entrance to St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle, instead airing a segment with June Dally Watkins sharing her etiquette tips, with the vision of the brothers arriving shown in a small box at the bottom right-hand corner of the screen.

SBS, which had not broadcast William and Kate’s wedding, ­decided to join the party and attracted a modest 129,000 viewers with its coverage hosted by Ray Martin, Joel Creasey and Myf Warhurst.

Despite the ratings success, channel-surfing viewers took to social media to air their criticisms of the networks, slamming Seven’s coverage hosted by Melissa Doyle and Michael Usher as “hopeless”, and complaining of too many ­adverts on Nine.

Viewers also complained about Today show stars Karl Stefanovic and Georgie Gardner’s hosting of Nine’s coverage.

Seven had BBC broadcaster Angela Rippon as its star royal ­expert, while Nine had former royal press secretary Dickie Arbiter and others.

Ten suffered what is believed to be its lowest ever primary channel audience share of 3.4 per cent after snubbing the royal wedding, ­instead streaming the event on its recently launched news site Ten Daily, with live crosses by Lisa Wilkinson and Angela Bishop.

Seven won the night with a 36.4 per cent share, while Nine had 26 per cent, the ABC 9.9 per cent and SBS 2.9 per cent.

Ten’s main channel carried David Attenborough, medical reality show Ambulance and the 1997 movie Air Force One on Saturday night.

Seven also won the ratings when Will and Kate married in April 2011, drawing an average 1.7 million metro viewers across the hour from 6.30pm, while Nine ­averaged 1.5 million between 7pm and 8.30pm.

Ten’s head of corporate communications, Neil Shoebridge, said the network had made a deliberate, strategic decision to stream Saturday’s royal wedding on Ten Daily, and had not abandoned the event. It comes after Ita Buttrose quit her role on the network’s panel show Studio 10, reportedly due to Ten having overlooked her to host its wedding coverage.

The star-studded event, which followed weeks of dramatic media coverage, drew an overall worldwide viewing audience of almost two billion, as the Windsors welcomed the Hollywood star into their family in a decidedly modern ceremony.

Amal and George Clooney, Oprah Winfrey, Elton John, Pippa Middleton and Victoria and David Beckham were among the cele­brity guests.