Royal wedding: On TV, chatter and ads

The Royal Wedding Special promised to be the television event of the year - but for many it was just a smorgasbord of advertising and endless chitter-chatter.

Nearly 2.2m New Zealanders tuned in at some stage between 7.30pm and 12.30am and nearly 1.4m watched the exchange of vows at 10.15pm.

Nielsen data showed more women watching (64 per cent) than men (36 per cent).

TV One won the battle of the ratings with 884,190 viewers during the ceremony. This compared with TV3's 492,420.

Media guru Bill Ralston said he watched the wedding "to the bitter end" jumping between TV One, TV3 and Sky's UKTV and E Channel.

He rated TV3's panel, led by John Campbell, as "quite entertaining" and said it provided some light relief during the evening's lulls.

"I think the staunch royalist would have gone to TV One, but if you're a healthy sceptic you'd tune into TV3," he said.

Over on TV One, disgruntled viewers were turning to the internet to complain about the ad breaks.

Luke Atkin posted on TVNZ's Facebook page: "Toooo blooody many adverts, it's disgusting."

And Holly Page timed a mere four minutes of coverage between ad breaks around 10pm.

An independent advertising executive said a 30-second slot on TV One during the wedding cost between $8000 and $9000 and TV3 cost between $5000 and $6000.