8,500 journalists and snappers to capture every moment

SOME 8,500 journalists, photographers, and technical staff have arrived in London to ensure every second of the royal wedding is covered.

Journalists from across the globe have set up at a temporary media village outside Buckingham Palace from where they can stream reports, pictures and television footage to an estimated two billion people in more than 180 countries.

Teams from Mexico, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and Canada have made their way to London in a clear sign that Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding has captured international attention.

Close to 4,500 staff from 100 overseas outlets on the ground will join numerous British teams lining the ceremonial route, and beam live footage back to their home nations.

Following special requests from a string of US networks, Buckingham Palace is to stay lit up until 12.30am — an hour and a half later than usual to allow millions of Americans sit down for prime-time evening bulletins presented from London.

US broadcaster CNN is sending around 400 staff to cover the event including 50 journalists and producers, with Piers Morgan, Richard Quest, Anderson Cooper and Kiran Chetry leading the coverage.

In Britain, viewers are waking up to royal wedding reports on all the major TV channels and radio stations.

The BBC has devoted around 500 employees to coverage on the day in one of the corporation’s biggest ever outside broadcasts.

At Sky, some 160 people will be contributing to reports across a range of media platforms while at ITV, this figure stands at around 300.

Jonathan Munro, director of newsgathering and deputy editor of ITV News, said the channel’s coverage would be “one of the most complex and ambitious projects ITV News has ever undertaken”.

“We are deploying technology not even dreamt of when Charles and Diana were married,” he added.

Roberta Saviano, a TV producer for Brazilian channel Record, explained the presence of his 12-strong team, saying: “There’s a lot of interest back in Brazil because we don’t have a monarchy and we’re interested in the glamour, sophistication and protocol.”

Fumeo Okubo, a cameraman for Japanese channel TV Asahi, said he had arrived with a team of more than 20. “It’s interesting because in Japan we have a similar royal tradition with the Emperor. We have that in common with Britain,” he added.