Some viewers were unhappy at the amount of coverage dedicated to the news of Prince Philip’s death by the BBC
The BBC responded to a barrage of complaints that there was “too much” coverage of the news of Prince Philip’s death on Friday by setting up a specific form on their website.
The Duke of Edinburgh died peacefully at Windsor Castle on Friday morning, with the Royal Family confirming the news in a short statement shortly after midday.
Within minutes, the BBC interrupted its scheduled programmes to announce the news, with BBC One later suspending all non-news programming for the remainder of the day. In their place, a series of specials about the duke’s life were aired.
The decision to wipe the schedule proved unpopular with many viewers, to the extent that the corporation launched the complaints form on their website later in the evening.
“We’re receiving complaints about too much TV coverage of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” the form said.
“Please enter your email address below to register a complaint about this – we’ll then send you the BBC’s response as soon as it is available.”
Scheduling returned to normal on BBC Two from Saturday, with BBC One expected to follow later in the day.
As was the case with the BBC, ITV also cleared its schedule in response to the news on Friday. This Morning had been abruptly cut short as the news was broken to viewers in a special broadcast from the ITV newsroom.
Channel 4 did not completely suspend its schedule for the day but did broadcast a 30-minute news special shortly after the announcement from the Palace, along with an obituary at 4pm and an extended edition of the news at 7pm.
