How many individuals noticed the Queen’s coronation on TV in 1953?
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illions of persons are thought to have watched the Queen’s coronation on tv in June 1953 – however there are not any dependable figures, making comparisons with TV ratings of at present tough.
Television was nonetheless in its infancy within the UK within the early Fifties and the identical was true of the strategies used to measure its viewers.
Unlike at present, there was no impartial organisation chargeable for compiling and publishing rankings, and no constant means wherein the info was collected.
Instead, the BBC carried out its personal surveys to find what folks had seen or heard on the tv and radio.
The BBC was the one broadcaster within the UK at the moment and its tv service had not been working very lengthy, having launched in 1936, closed throughout the Second World War, then restarted in 1946.
A every day survey of radio audiences had begun in 1939 however was solely prolonged to cowl tv in 1952, the 12 months earlier than the Queen’s coronation.
The surveys weren’t carried out in a very strong means: BBC workers interviewed a various cross-section of individuals throughout the nation, requested them to recollect what that they had watched not too long ago, then used the responses to estimate a determine for the general variety of viewers.
Based on surveys carried out after the coronation of Elizabeth II, the BBC estimated that its tv protection of the occasion was seen by greater than 20 million adults in Britain.
It just isn’t clear from the supply (the BBC official handbook for 1955) whether or not this determine contains each grownup who stated they watched some tv at any level throughout your entire protection – which ran from 10.15am to five.20pm – or if it refers solely to the two-and-a-half-hour coronation service.
But 20 million remains to be a exceptional quantity when contemplating the variety of households with a TV licence on March 31 1953 – 9 weeks earlier than the coronation happened – stood at simply 2.1 million.
With so few licences, and such an enormous estimated TV viewers, many individuals are prone to have watched the coronation at another person’s home, getting along with neighbours, family and friends.
The grownup inhabitants of Britain in mid-1953 is estimated to have been round 35 million, in response to the Office for National Statistics (primarily based on folks aged 20 and over).
This means that greater than half of all adults in Britain noticed some or all the coronation on tv.
Such a statistic turns into much more spectacular when taking into consideration that not all the nation might even obtain tv in 1953.
The constructing of 4 high-power transmitters outdoors London – within the Midlands, the North of England, Scotland and Wales – had solely been accomplished in 1952.
Two low-power short-term transmitters had been within the technique of being constructed throughout 1953 in north-east England and Northern Ireland to spice up protection, however even by 1954 solely 84% of the UK inhabitants was inside vary of a TV sign.
The Queen’s coronation was the primary time a tv viewers outnumbered a radio viewers and it performed a decisive position in boosting the recognition of the medium, in addition to demand for TV units.
By March 31 1954, virtually a 12 months on from the coronation, the variety of TV licences had risen from 2.1 million to three.2 million – the largest annual soar since licences had been first issued after the struggle.
By the top of the last decade – a interval that noticed cheaper TV units, rising requirements of residing and the launch in 1955 of ITV – the quantity stood at 9.3 million.
Estimates of TV audiences within the Fifties can’t be in contrast instantly with TV rankings as they’re measured at present.
The present methodology of calculating TV audiences was established solely in 1981 by the viewers analysis organisation Barb.
Since 1981, the very best TV viewers on document was for the funeral service for Diana, Princess of Wales, in September 1997, which was seen by 31.0 million on the BBC and ITV.
The funeral service of the Queen in September 2022 was seen by 26.5 million folks throughout greater than 50 TV channels.