The funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was watched by more than 26 million viewers on Monday (September 19). The event, at Westminster Abbey, garnered one of the country’s biggest ever TV audiences, according to provisional figures.
The service was broadcast simultaneously on a range of channels between 11am and just after midday, including BBC One and Two, ITV and Sky News. An average of 26.2 million people watched across all channels, according to overnight ratings released by the research organisation Barb.
The figure is not quite as high as the official ratings for the funeral service of Diana, Princess of Wales in September 1997. This was seen by an average of 32.1 million viewers, including 19.3 million on BBC One and 11.7 million on ITV, and remains the highest audience for a television broadcast since comparable figures began in August 1981.
