Royal wedding to be streamed on YouTube
Palace officials have said they will stream the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton live on YouTube, the first such coverage of a royal event.
As well as the four hours of Internet coverage on the Royal Channel (www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel) on April 29, there will also be a live multimedia blog put together by royal officials, they said.
St James's Palace, the office of Prince William, said it was "in line with the couple’s wishes to make the wedding as accessible as possible for as many people as want to participate".
The feed will included William and Kate's journey to and from Westminster Abbey; the service; the appearance of the couple on the balcony of Buckingham Palace; and a military flypast.
Royal officials would provide a live blog with historical information and other details, the first time a blog has run alongside a live stream on YouTube for any occasion, the palace said.
An official video "wedding book" also invites people to submit their own video congratulations.
There will also be an integrated feed on the Twitter microblogging service while additional photographs will be released on photosharing website Flickr.
It would be the "most digital and interactive coverage of a royal wedding to date", the palace said.
Meanwhile the official Twitter hashtag for the wedding would be #rw2011, Clarence House, the residence of William's father Prince Charles, announced on its Twitter feed.
Internet giant Google, which owns YouTube, said it was "thrilled" by the streaming announcement.
Two billion people worldwide are expected to watch the wedding, the government said last week. About 750 million people watched William's parents Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer marry in 1981.
(c) 2011 AFP
