Prince Philip’s funeral was watched by a peak audience of more than 13 million on the BBC and ITV in the UK, as the Duke of Edinburgh was laid to rest during an intimate service in the grounds of Windsor Castle.
Some 82.8% of the available television viewing population were glued to BBC One and ITV’s coverage between 3PM and 3:15PM local time, which was just after the Duke of Edinburgh was carried into St George’s Chapel and his funeral commenced.
That peak of 13M will have been higher once you factor in the audience on news channels, including BBC News, Sky News, and CNN International. Sky One, for example, simulcast Sky News’ coverage for 50,000 viewers at 3PM. Meanwhile, special news bulletins on Channel 4 and Channel 5 were watched by 1.2M at the same time.
BBC television journalist Lizo Mzimba reported that 13.62M viewers watched the whole hour-long service across the BBC, ITV, Sky One, BBC News, and Sky News.
BBC One accounted for the largest chunk of the audience. It peaked with 10.8M at 3PM and averaged 6.62M over the course of a four-hour broadcast, according to overnight BARB figures supplied by overnights.tv.
For context, the Queen mother’s funeral was seen by a peak of 10.4M viewers in 2002, according to the BBC. Princess Diana’s funeral was watched by around 32M in 1997.