[HPFGU-OTChatter] The Royal Wedding and the Bank Account

[Shaun Hately]

On 13/04/2011 7:13 PM, Steve wrote:
> I think we have some people here from the UK, and perhaps some people
> who are just anglophiles, I'm wondering about the upcoming Royal
> Wedding. Does this represent a Profit Center for the Royal family, and
> if so, who gets the money? The Queen, Charles, or William? Or perhaps
> the national treasury, though I highly doubt that.

Well, I'm a monarchist and take a very keen interest in the actual 
functioning of the monarchy, so I'll have a go at answering your questions.

> I'm in the USA, and I see books and magazines everywhere about the
> Prince and the future Princess. Someone is making big money. Also the
> wedding will be televised, that has to generate some revenue. Further,
> there are countless interviews on TV and in magazines, I assume money
> changes hands before these interviews are agreed to.

The Royal Family do not, in general, accept money for interviews (the 
Duchess of York does on occasion, but she is no longer formally a member 
of the Royal family). They do not give interviews on the basis of money, 
but as a matter of public interest. In certain circumstances, it is seen 
as part of their official duty to give interviews. The Queen, by the 
way, never does so, and it's fairly rare even for other senior Royals.

Yes, money is being made on this - by the media organisations that do 
the interviews, and those that publish them.

> I would seem that their are millions of Pounds or $Dollars at stake
> here. I'm wondering if anyone has some estimate of how profitable this
> wedding will be?

Current estimates are that the wedding represents about a 20 - 60 
million boost to the British economy, with most hovering around the 30 
to 45 million mark. The Royal Family and the British government will 
see almost none of this money directly (although the government will get 
some tax boost out of it) - there are some official souvenirs sanctioned 
by the Royal Family - all profits from these are to be directed to the 
Royal Collection Trust, a charity that helps looks after the palaces and 
their art.

Television rights to broadcast the Royal Wedding are not sold in the UK 
but as broadcast rules prevent British broadcasters from showing 
advertisements during their telecast of Royal events, there's a fair 
disincentive to try and buy them anyway. BBC, ITV, and Sky have all 
chosen to broadcast advertisement free. They may make some money 
onselling their broadcasts to other countries television services but in 
a lot of cases, that's covered by existing arrangements (for example, 
ITV has an agreement with America's NBC that each can broadcast the 
others signal when covering news events on opposite sides of the Atlantic.

> I doubt people talk about this sort of thing, but not talking about it
> doesn't make it not exist.
>
> I mean there are millions to be made in a hit movie, or in a televised
> sporting event, an event like this must raise some money for someone
> somewhere?

Oh yes, but it's spread out over a lot of different things.

Just for the record - the vast majority of the Crown's wealth is at the 
disposal of the British government - it does go into the National 
Treasury. Under agreements dating back to George III, the Crown ceded 
the income from the Crown estate (currently around 200 million a year) 
to the Treasury in exchange for a fixed annual income called the civil 
list. The civil list payment currently stands at 7,900,000 a year and 
has been at that level for the last 20 years. From 2013, this is going 
to change and it will rise quite substantially but still will not come 
even remotely close to the value of the income from the Crown Estates. 
The Queen, and the Prince of Wales, both also have the income from 
property associated with two Royal Duchies (the Queen is Duke of 
Lancaster which generates about 10 million, the Prince of Wales is Duke 
of Cornwall which generates about 15 million). Overall though the Crown 
is a real money spinner for Britain - in a sense they pay an income tax 
rate of about 80%!)