With two weeks left until the royal wedding, Seven and SBS have revealed their broadcast plans for the big day on May 19.
For Seven, this means coverage of the event, and special programming all week.
The Sunrise team led by Samantha Armytage and David Koch will be broadcasting all week in the lead-up from various royal locations around London, culminating at Windsor Castle.
Senior correspondents Melissa Doyle and Michael Usher will anchor Seven News live special coverage of the royal wedding on Seven and 7plus on May 19 from a purpose-built studio overlooking Windsor Castle.
They’ll cross live to Europe bureau chief Hugh Whitfeld and correspondent Laurel Irving during the festivities. US Correspondent Ashlee Mullany will be live from Meghan Markle’s old stomping ground in Los Angeles. Seven’s team of reporters across Australia will be live from royal wedding viewing parties.
Seven’s royal commentators are acclaimed BBC broadcaster Angela Rippon CBE, veteran royal editor and commentator Tim Ewart, royal insider and commentator Victoria Arbiter, royal biographer and historian Hugo Vickers and Sunrise royal editor Rob Jobson. Royal photographer Arthur Edwards, historian Susannah Lipscomb and author Kathy Lette will contribute to the coverage as well.
Seven News coverage of the royal wedding is backed by the exclusive resources of British broadcast news affiliate ITN.
In the week leading up to the event, Seven will air Invitation to a Royal Wedding. The documentary film is produced by Oxford Films, the company behind the top-rating Diana, Our Mother: Her Life and Legacy featuring rare interviews with Princes William and Harry.
SBS, meanwhile, is slating its live coverage as being “from a different perspective”.
Fresh from Eurovision, TV and radio presenter Myf Warhurst and comedian Joel Creasey will team up with legendary journalist Ray Martin at SBS’s Artarmon HQ for Royal Wedding LIVE.
Filmed in front of a live studio audience, SBS’s Royal Wedding LIVE will begin on May 19 at 7.30pm, and will include the big event itself. Warhurst, Creasey and Martin will talk to a diverse lineup of guests (including both a royalist and a republican) to discuss what this wedding means to a modern, multicultural Australia. The group will also delve into how the royal wedding compares to other countries’ royal traditions.
SBS’s coverage will also include packages from The Feed’s Jan Fran, as well as SBS News’s European correspondent Ben Lewis reporting live from Windsor.
Marshall Heald, Director of TV and Online Content, SBS, said: “SBS will provide a unique broadcast of what is undoubtedly one of the biggest royal weddings of our era. It will be warm, funny and intelligent, whilst examining issues this wedding raises, including cross-cultural marriages, the republican debate and what these issues mean for Australians.
“We know audiences want more than just commentary of the royal wedding and SBS will provide a place for that conversation. By bringing diverse and prominent Australians together in a live studio before the wedding begins, Royal Wedding LIVE will be an opportunity for us to explore the royal wedding in a unique SBS way which will give audiences a deeper insight.”