The Royal Wedding is a week away, and with the biggest audience in television history expected to tune in to see Prince William and Kate Middleton exchange vows on April 29, the American media is losing its collective, bloody mind covering it.
None of the news organizations contacted by TheWrap would disclose what they are spending on Royal coverage. But, like other big global news events, the cost -- estimated in the $5 million-$10-million-range for some networks -- is excessive.
Costs include airfare and hotels for talent and production staff, makeshift studios, and licensing of the official wedding feed from BBC, ITV and Sky (the only networks allowed to shoot the procession).
And for U.S. news outlets whose 2011 budgets have been decimated by the costs of covering global catastrophes like Egypt, Libya and Japan, it’s surprising that so many of them appear to be ponying up the resources without blinking an eye.
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"It's an event -- something you have to cover, even if the P&L isn't that great," Brad Adgate, senior VP of research, Horizon Media, told TheWrap. "There’s no choice but to cover it like a Presidential inauguration."
But is the ridiculous American media interest in the Royal Wedding -- and the cost -- justified? There is evidence it might be.
An estimated 2 billion people are expected to watch the Royal Wedding on TV, with another 400 million streaming it online and roughly 800,000 crowded outside Buckingham Palace. As WSJ.com noted, about 35 percent of the world’s population will be tuning in.
To put that figure in perspective, the last Royal Wedding -- Charles and Diana -- was watched by 750 million.
Yahoo said worldwide searches related to the new Royal Wedding have skyrocketed since the Novemeber announcement -- 1,523 percent in the last month alone.
NBC was first in line at the Royal Asylum, devoting a full hour of "Dateline" to the engagement less than a day after the couple's November announcement. (The show had been in the works since they began dating, according to Adage.com.)
The “Today” show followed, devoting countless segments that fed the hype -- including a mind-numbing interview with the stars of Lifetime’s made-for-TV movie, "William & Kate," conducted by Jenna Bush Hager -- and even offering viewers a chance to win a trip to London for the big day.
And that was before NBC announced its official coverage plans, which will include reports from more than a dozen network anchors and correspondents -- more than 20 hours of combined coverage from NBC and MSNBC on the day of the wedding, beginning at 3 a.m. ET.
Here's what the Peacock has in store:
>> Meredith Vieira will begin broadcasting from London on April 25, with Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry arriving later in the week.
>> Brian Williams will broadcast his “Nightly News” beginning Wednesday, April 27.
