Royal Couple to Wed in HD?

The wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton will receive wall-to-wall coverage in NZ but only one channel is likely to air the ceremony in HD.

Sky’s UKTV and the satcaster’s news channels are SD, and TV3 has confirmed its ITV feed won’t be HD — which leaves TV One as potentially the sole HD broadcaster.

“The BBC is sending the signal in HD,” TVNZ news and current affairs PR manager Andi Brotherston says.

“We are in the process of determining whether we can pick it up off the satellite in HD.

“It’s a work in progress. We have only done this once before, Beijing in 2008.”

On April 29, the day of the wedding, TV One will have Petra Bagust, Wendy Petrie and Mark Sainsbury reporting live from London for Breakfast, One News and Close Up respectively.

Petrie also will present an 8.30pm special about the build-up to the event, with TV One taking BBC coverage from 10pm.

The live satellite transmission will follow all members of the Royal Family and the bride as they make their way to Westminster Abbey and the arrival of key guests.

There will be multi-camera coverage of the service from inside the Abbey; afterwards, the procession will be tracked to Buckingham Palace, where the bride and groom are expected to kiss on the Palace balcony around 12.45am.

Up to two billion viewers worldwide are tipped to tune in to the couple’s nuptials, which would be more than double the viewership of Prince Charles and Lady Diana’s wedding 30 years earlier.