How To Easily Watch The Queen's Funeral Processions

People say “it’s the end of an era” to signify many things, but the passing of Queen Elizabeth II was the end of a literal era. Textbooks will call the period from 1952 to 2022 “The Second Elizabethan Era,” defined by the 70-year reign of the longest-serving monarch in U.K. history. If you want to tune into the Queen’s funeral to pay last respects to a woman whose name will define nearly a century of events, here’s how to watch.

For those who can access BBC One or BBC World News, you’ll know that just about everything (save the premiere of The Great British Baking Show) has been preempted in the U.K. Channels are wall-to-wall with coverage of the different events surrounding the Queen’s funeral proceedings, which have been going on since Saturday, Sept. 10 when Charles’ accession was broadcast.

Most rolling news channels in America, like CNN, have dipped in and out of ongoing coverage. But with the Queen resting at Westminister Hall with a four-and-a-half-mile line (dubbed The Queue) to see her coffin, it’s time to look forward to the funeral itself.

The funeral is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The ITV/BBC streaming service BritBox and BBC America will have coverage starting the day before. BritBox has been live-streaming ITV’s coverage since Elizabeth’s passing and will continue to do so on Sunday the 18th, while BBC America has A Tribute to Her Majesty The Queen on Sunday at 8 p.m. ET.

As for the big day, The Queue will close up shop on Monday at 8:30 a.m. local time to ready the coffin to move from Westminister Hall to the Abbey where the funeral will be held. Big Ben will be silenced from 9 a.m. onward. The casket will travel from the Hall to the Abbey’s main hall, starting at 10:44 a.m. BT, with the royal family walking behind it. The public funeral service will then commence at 11 a.m. BT and last one hour, ending with two minutes of silence.

As soon as the funeral ends, the coffin will be taken down The Mall, through the streets of London to Wellington Arch. From Wellington Arch, it will then be flown to Windsor Castle, paraded down the Long Walk to St. George’s Chapel, where her internment will be broadcast from. That, too, is expected to last an hour and conclude the public broadcast portion of laying the Queen to rest. The BBC will then air a one-hour recap, The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II: Events of the Day, followed by the greatest movie ever made, Paddington 2.

BBC One will begin coverage at 8 a.m. local time. That’s five hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, so 3 a.m. or 12 midnight PT. American channels will start tuning in around 4 a.m. ET (1 a.m. PT), with PBS, BBC America, and CNN all slated to begin covering that early. Most other broadcast channels (ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC) are expected to start at 5 a.m. or 5:30 a.m. ET. Everyone is expected to cover in full until the ceremony is over at St. George’s Chapel, which is 12 p.m. ET/9 a.m PT, with either limited or no commercial interruptions.

How To Watch the Queen’s Funeral in the U.S.

For cord-cutters, if you subscribe to BritBox, you can get the full ITV live stream, which will kick in at 4:30 a.m. ET. Both Paramount+ and Peacock will carry live streams of the funeral proceedings from their respective broadcast networks, CBS and NBC, for paid subscribers. Hulu + Live TV will have ABC’s coverage, and the broadcast will be streamable on regular Hulu as soon as it ends at noon ET. The PBS App will also carry the funeral coverage for most local stations.

But the easiest way for cord-cutters will be YouTube. Almost every British network has live streamed the major funeral events on their respective YouTube channels. While some are geo-blocked, the BBC is not, and it is expected to stream the funeral proceedings, live, in total, on YouTube.

While most stations are expected to return to regular programming after the funeral ends at noon, PBS will continue with coverage, with a rebroadcast of the Newshour special, Queen Elizabeth: A Royal Life, followed by documentaries and specials, which vary depending on your local station. PBS will end with a broadcast of the BBC One recap, The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II: Events of the Day, at 8 p.m. ET after local airings of the PBS Newshour. (Sadly, it will not air Paddington 2, but the film is streaming on HBO Max should you need it.)

The Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II starts on most American networks between 4 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. ET on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022.