BBC receives record number of complaints as more than 100,000 object to Prince Philip death coverage

More than 110,994 people have now contacted the broadcaster to object to the volume of coverage since the Duke’s death

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The BBC's blanket coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death has become the most complained about event in British television.

Nearly 111,000 people contacted the broadcaster to complain about the way the Duke’s death was covered. Most of the complaints were about the extensive coverage the BBC devoted to the royal death. 

The programming has overtaken Jerry Springer: The Opera as Britain’s most complained about broadcast. It drew 63,000 complaints about blasphemy for its portrayal of Jesus when it aired on the BBC in 2005.

The BBC suspended the BBC One and BBC Two schedules on Friday in favour of a series of special programmes, many of which were simultaneously shown on both channels.

BBC Four was suspended altogether, and showed a message which instructed viewers to switch to another channel for a “major news report”.

Programmes including the final of Masterchef have been postponed indefinitely, while football coverage planned for BBC Two ended up only being shown online.

The BBC cleared its schedules after the death of Prince Philip was announced on Friday
The BBC cleared its schedules after the death of Prince Philip was announced on Friday Credit: Darrin Zammit Lupi/Reuters

Following the onslaught of complaints, the BBC set up a dedicated online form where viewers could submit their grievances about how the royal’s death was covered.

“We're receiving complaints about too much TV coverage of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh,” the broadcaster 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.”

Protocol about death of senior Royal family members means that the announcement is first made by the BBC and the Press Association.

BBC One saw its viewership fall by six per cent between 7pm and 11pm last Friday, as numbers for BBC Two were down by 65 per cent.

The most watched broadcast on Friday was Gogglebox on Channel 4, which did not suspend the majority of its standard schedule.

After the designated complaints form went live on the BBC website, a further 116 viewers complained that the broadcaster had made it too easy to complain.

The BBC also received 400 complaints about a tribute given by Prince Andrew to his father. It was the first time that the Prince had spoken in public since he stepped down from royal duties after his 2019 Newsnight interview about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.

The BBC, which was contacted for comment, is set to reveal how many complaints were made in a fortnightly bulletin on Thursday.

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