The ABC sought a competitive edge against its commercial TV rivals in covering the Royal wedding over the weekend, forking out money to appear at the top of Google’s search rankings.

Those who searched “Royal wedding” on Google would’ve seen an ad for ABC News above the marriage of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on Saturday night, according to Fairfax.

An ABC spokesman confirmed its search engine marketing strategy to Fairfax ahead of the wedding, but said it was “no different” to other broadcasters, and the amount it was spending was “very small”.

“For example, less than $1000 would be spent on SEM for the ABC coverage of the royal wedding, for which we will have both television and news coverage available,” the spokesman said.

“We spend on SEM purely to ensure our audience can easily find ABC coverage of significant news, television or radio programs or events.”