Not too long ago, the networks said that the royal wedding coverage of William and Kate will be small and nothing like the same coverage for Prince Charles and Di. Well, the networks are wrong again.
I have always loved the monarchy in England. Queen Elizabeth bloodline is a quintessential example of a true dynasty. The British colony expands over 52 countries worldwide, and everybody around the world looks up to the UK with admiration and respect. People would have asked why we need a monarchy in the UK. The answer is quite simple. Most Brits wants to keep the monarchy. In fact, only 15% of Brits wants to see the monarchy dissolved. The fact remains that tourism to the UK is base on the monarchy. Since most people are celebrity-driven fans, the monarchy is no different to Obama, Bush, Bon Jovi, Elizabeth Taylor, or Kenny Chesney. The Brits are very traditional, and the monarchy stretches beyond generations. The monarchy holds all the colonies of the UK together. It gives the colonies pride and honor to be part of a tradition and legacy. The monarchy links the future with the present and past. It is why the British monarchy has been around a very long time.
Ironically, America needs the British monarchy. During our darkest times, the monarchy has cheered us up. We have seen it in 1947, when Queen Elizabeth married Prince Phillip after the Second World War and America's Great Depression. In 1981, after experiencing the worst recession under the Carter Administration, American saw the fairy tale wedding of Prince Charlie and Diana. And today's unrest in the Middle East and the recession in the USA, Americans can take solace to enjoy the wedding of Prince William and Kate.
(Digital life) The live streaming of Will and Kate's nuptials had 1.6 million concurrent video views, making it the biggest event to be watched on the Web, exceeding last summer's World Cup, according to Akamai.
"I can tell you the World Cup (last June) was around 1.6 million concurrent views as well, but the royal wedding has edged that out just a little bit more," said Jeff Young, spokesman for Akamai, which provides streaming-media services for more than 300 news websites, including msnbc.com, as well as other companies.
The wedding, streamed by YouTube and other sites, also surpassed "other major video events, like Michael Jackson's funeral and the inauguration of President Obama," Young said.
It's yet another sign that the Internet has "become a broadcast medium," he said. Obama's inauguration in January 2009 and Michael Jackson's funeral in June 2009 were "both really large events, but as time goes on and technology improves, you’re finding more people consuming more video on more devices," such as smartphones and tablets, Young said.
"Over those two years, there’s been an influx of connected devices, tablets, mobile phones."
The Associated Press said another company, Livestream, which partnered with the AP, UK Press Association, CBS and Entertainment Tonight for its live stream, "said it surpassed its own record with, at one point, more than 300,000 concurrent live streams."
In terms of Internet traffic for news, the wedding ranked 6th, behind the U.S. mid-term elections last fall, based on page views, Young said. At one point during the wedding, Akamai reported a peak of 5 million-plus page views each minute.
"At about 6 a.m. Eastern time, there was a sharp increase in traffic, and it peaks at about 9:30 a.m., with more than 5 million page views per minute," said Young.
