Coronation watched by almost 19m viewers in the UK
The King's coronation service at Westminster Abbey was watched by more than 18 million viewers in the UK, provisional figures have shown.
ThelavishceremonyonSaturday which saw Charles and Camilla crowned was broadcast simultaneously on a range ofchannelsbetweenabout11am and 1pm, including BBC One and Two, ITV and Sky News.
An average of 18.8 million people watched across 11 channelsandservices,withaudience figures peaking at 20.4 million whentheKingwascrownedjust aftermidday,accordingtoovernightratingsreleasedbytheresearch organisation Barb.
Thefigureisnotquiteashigh astheratingsforthefuneralservice of the late Queen last September which was seen by 26.5 millionpeopleacrossmorethan 50 TV channels.
Millions of people are thought to have watched the Queen's coronation on television in June 1953 - but there are noreliablefigures,makingcomparisons with TV ratings of today difficult.
There was no independent organisation responsible for compiling and publishing ratings, and no consistent way in which the data was collected. Instead, the BBC carried out its own surveys to discover what peoplehadseenorheardonthe television and radio.
The surveys were not carried out in a particularly robust way: BBC staff interviewed a varying cross-section of people across the country, asked them to remember what they had watched recently, then used the responses to estimate a figure for the overall number of viewers.
Based on surveys carried out after the coronation of Elizabeth II, the BBC estimated its television coverage of the event was seen by more than 20 million adults in Britain.