YouTube will stream the Royal Wedding in its entirety.
The Google-owned site said the live-stream would begin at 5:00 a.m. ET April 29 on the official Royal Channel on YouTube, and will include footage of the nuptials from start to finish — "the wedding procession, marriage ceremony at Westminster Abbey and balcony kiss." The stream will be forever archived on the Royal Channel, YouTube said.
Google previously announced that it would include a "Royals'-eye view" of the event on its Google Earth 3D — "complete with 3D images of iconic landmarks and five species of digital trees that can be seen along the route."
Here's the full release:
As the historic day approaches, the much-anticipated wedding of Britain's Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton has people around the world buzzing with excitement.
While millions will be in London for the big day, it's clear that people around the world have wedding fever. Google search trends show that in addition to the UK and the US, the top ten countries searching for “Royal Wedding” include places like Singapore and the Philippines. In response, we've been working to make as much of the big day as possible accessible to everyone. We previously announced the expansion of our Google Earth 3D imagery to offer a “Royals’-eye” view of the entire wedding procession, complete with 3D images of iconic landmarks and five species of digital trees that can be seen along the route.
Today, we’re thrilled that the Royal Household has just announced that footage of the entire ceremony will be live streamed on their official YouTube channel: www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel.
The live stream will begin at 10:00am BST (9:00am GMT, 2:00am PT, 5:00am ET) on Friday, April 29, and will follow the wedding procession, marriage ceremony at Westminster Abbey and balcony kiss. Alongside the live stream, The Royal Channel will also feature live blog commentary of the event to give timely updates and insights as the day unfolds. For those of you in different time zones, the footage will be reshown in its entirety directly following the event and will be available in full on the site to view afterward.
You don’t have to wait until the big day to "attend" the wedding, though. A video guest book has just been opened on The Royal Channel for anyone in the YouTube community to upload messages of congratulations, inspiration or well wishes to the happy couple.
More than 50 years ago, the marriage of The Queen’s sister, Princess Margaret, and Antony Armstrong-Jones was the first royal wedding to be broadcast on television and had over 20 million viewers. This one is already heralded as the first of the Internet age, where for the first time in thousands of years of royal history, the moment will be captured online and preserved forever.
