PEJ: Majority Not Planning to Watch Royal Nuptials

Says women over 50 most likely to tune in

By John Eggerton -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/27/2011 5:16:36 PM

A majority of news consumers (78%) say they have not been paying much attention to the media run-up to the royal wedding Friday. That interest will likely grow somewhat for the actual "I do's," but remain a distinct minority.

That is according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism's (PEJ) News Interest Index for April 21-25. A majority (64% of respondents) said there had been too much coverage of the wedding preliminaries.

Despite that finding, PEJ said it expects the actual Friday wedding (April 29) to attract a "sizeable" U.S. audience, particularly among older women. About a third of women 50 and over said they planned to watch. The overall figure was only 19%, however, and that will be divided over a host of nets planning to cover the event, including all the major broadcast nets and many cable news outlets.

Asked how closely they were following news about the wedding of Prince William and fiancée Kate Middleton, only 8% said very closely and 13% fairly closely, while 25% said not too closely and 63% said not at all closely.

The news interest survey was of 1,001 adults 18-plus contacted by phone--landline and cell.