I'd love to see a provenance for the 2 billion viewers claim. One suspects that this is an absurdly optimistic guess which suits the broadcasters' purposes to the point where it can be mentioned unchallenged.
The FIFA world cup final claimed to have reached an estimated 1.3 billion viewers, and that figure was derided by many. To suggest that the wedding, jolly though it was, reach nearly 30 per cent of the population of the planet is preposterous.
Look at the audience. Vast areas of the world don't have access to television. For them the viewing figures will be 0 percent. A fifth of the world's population lives in China. I would be surprised if the wedding was shown live and watched by 30 per cent of the population of the People's Republic.
Even in the royal-loving USA, I find it hard to believe that a quarter of the population of Los Angeles got up at 3am to watch, or a quarter of New York stirred from its slumbers at 6am to tune in. What say our US posters? How many here watched it live?
Even allowing for clips shown on news broadcasts, online showings and streamed to mobile devices a day later, the two billion figure still seems ludicrous.
Sorry to piss on the parade, but shoddy claims like that do no-one any favours.