MEDIA outlets have been warned not to inflate viewing figures for the King’s coronation given research shows as many as eight billion people will not watch the ceremony.
Campaign group Republic has said analysis from a variety of sources puts likely viewing figures for the event on May 6 between 100 million and 300m, which would mean between 7.7bn and 7.8bn would not be watching.
The world’s population surpassed 8bn last year.
Republic – which has previously challenged claims that 2bn people watched the royal wedding in 2011 - has also pointed out that viewers do not necessarily sit down to the watch the whole event, and many may only watch a few minutes.
Republic’s Graham Smith said: "Global viewing figures are always difficult to measure, but to suggest the coronation would attract even half a billion does not stand up to scrutiny.
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"All the available evidence suggests that global interest, while high in certain places, is generally far lower than for sporting or other major national events.
"Olympic opening ceremonies and the first inauguration of President Obama are among those events that are likely to have had larger global audiences, with good reason.
"It's really important we get a clear and accurate picture of interest in the monarchy and their set-piece events, as these nonsense figures only mislead the public and distort the debate on the monarchy.
“I'm calling on all journalists to ignore those inflated figures and accept that global viewing figures are hard to calculate, but what evidence there is points to a figure below 300m."
A YouGov poll earlier this month – which was commissioned by Republic - showed the majority of Britons (52%) are not interested in the coronation, with just 15% “very interested”.
The poll also showed a large majority (73%) believe the royals should pay for some or all of the coronation, with 37% saying they should pay for the entire coronation and 36% saying they should pay for the procession and ceremony while the UK Government should fund police and security.
The YouGov results also found that an even larger majority Scots (57%) were not interested in the coronation.
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