The Royal Wedding

I remember seeing Jennie Bond doing a piece to camera outside Buckingham Palace stood on a set of stepladders back in 1995! However, I suspect things might have moved on a bit since then

Over here, TV3 is showing almost constant Royal Wedding coverage from 8:30am-4:00pm, with Ireland AM curtailed to make way. There's also evening highlights. (This has also necessitated 3e's daytime schedule, which normally consists of repeats of TV3's daytime programming straight after, being replaced with back to back episodes of Seinfeld).

RTÉ's coverage is a bit more circumscribed - they're only covering the actual wedding, from 10:30am-1:30pm, on RTÉ One. There was an odd programme tonight "Will agus Kate" with Blaithnead Ní Coffaigh holding a "rehersal dinner" to discuss the royal wedding with Irish celebs. Possibly in Irish, I didn't watch it. Strange.

Did they realise he wasn't Prime Minister any more?


In all seriousness, what kind of view are the 'studios' in front of the Abbey likely to give on screen? And how do these set ups work in terms of 'ownership' and management? Who controls them and who decides who gets which lot? Is it a case of the highest bidder gets the better lot, or are 'better' ones reserved for certain types of broadcaster (e.g. British first, or a limit to number of lots per broadcaster)?

Yes Will Agus Kate was in Irish. Nicely done too, but strangly featured some Irish Drag Queens, Shirley (left) is already on RTÉ One. Veda is a singer with an album or two I believe.
http://iol.ie/~mooneyp/tvforum/willaguskate.jpg

I'm not sure where they are normally based, but apparently NBC have taken over the basement floor of 200 Grays Inn Road for their wedding coverage. The bottom of the atrium is full of NBC people.


Yes, it's in the building in the middle of the roundabout, above the shopping centre and tube station. Coca Cola have their HQ their too

Yes, the Swedish Royal Wedding was an oddity I remember having to rely on stills because there were no moving pictures available.

We do seem to have an odd attitude to such things in the UK. In the US (and many other countries) the big events of state are essentially public domain and free to use by any broadcaster. Here even the footage of the Houses of Parliament is restricted and requires clearance and payment after a few days.

Don't worry - I know what you mean!

There's a slightly raised semi-circular walkway on the opposite side of the roundabout to the Palace, on either side of the Mall. It's open to the public - but they sometimes close bits of it off so the media can use it. The temporary studios have been built on top of the bit of it to the right of the Mall.

You can see it quite well on Google Streetview here: http://bit.ly/erfSeb

I've not been down there this week, but have seen the site plan for the BBC, ITN and Sky compound - it seems they've built quite a sizable production village, nestled in the trees.

Also, fans of TV history may be pleased to learn that Europe's first purpose built transportable earth station, UKI-1, will be involved in the BBC's OB. It's older than Prince William!

[edit]
Nick Higham's bit from the News Channel about the media circus: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13190737

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5062/5657128228_28e80548f4.jpg

A photo I took yesterday of NBC's studio being built on Trafalgar Square.

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5109/5657127908_2e8cfac925.jpg

And one of the media gantry opposite Westminster Abbey.

I have to say MSNBC (as seen on Morning Joe, at least) have an amazing view from that studio - very well placed. They're also able to use Trafalgar Square well.

EDIT: I wonder who, in terms of MSNBC and news channels, will be back next year for the Olympics?

Yes - the view across the square and down Whitehall to Big Ben is probably one of the most impressive views in London.

I wandered past at lunchtime today, and it's nice to see that they're trying to make their London shows really public events. They've set up some speakers on the ground, so anyone nearby in the square can hear what's going out on air - and they're spending a fair bit of time in the square itself, chatting to people including the guy who's often there with a hawk!

interesting that [from the snippets of output i've seen] bbc world seem to be calling it the british royal wedding. whilst true, wills is also a future king of canada, australia etc...

a quick look at abc australia's website suggests they're taking the bbc feed in-tact. surprising, as presumably this falls right into primetime, and you'd think they'd want to cover it from an australian angle.

many other world broadcasters simply taking bbc/itn programmes?