The BBC’s Wall-To-Wall Coverage Of Prince Philip’s Death Has Received So Many Complaints That They’ve Put A Special Form In Place To Speed Up Feedback

Following the announcement of the Duke of Edinburgh’s death yesterday, the BBC suspended normal programming in favour of wall-to-wall coverage of the news – but not all viewers were happy about the diversion. With BBC News, BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Scotland and BBC Alba suddenly broadcasting identical content, social media was quickly flooded with responses.

Judging by the BBC’s next move, their official lines of complaint were similarly noisy – so much so, in fact, that the broadcaster has since implemented a specific online form to streamline objections to their blanket programming. ‘We're receiving complaints about too much TV coverage of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh’ says the webpage. ‘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.’

For some frustrated citizens, that's too little too late: the BBC’s decision meant that not only live football but the Masterchef final (both nigh on religious events in the UK) didn’t air as planned. As such, uproar was practically guaranteed – but other broadcasters didn’t emerge unscathed either. Despite airing a special news bulletin shortly after the news of the Duke’s death broke, as well as an in-depth obituary and extending its 7pm news offering, Channel 4 was reportedly criticised for returning to original scheduling later in the day.

Louisa Compton, Channel 4’s Head of News, Current Affairs and Sport, tweeted about the coverage, and noted that ‘C4 also has a duty to offer an alternative to other channels’. That seems difficult to dispute, considering that not only the BBC but ITV News too swept away usual coverage to make way exclusively for tributes and special reports on Prince Philip’s life and death.

Today, #DearBBC is trending on Twitter with many using the hashtag to highlight the broadcaster’s perceived overreaction to the Duke’s passing. Some users are comparing it to coverage of the ongoing coronavirus crisis and its staggering death toll (though I think it would be hard to argue that the pandemic hasn't had plenty of air time in the last 12 months or so).

The last time a major royal died was 2002, when the Queen Mother passed aged 101. Back then, terrestrial TV was still the default and we weren’t accustomed to the on-demand utopia of entertainment afforded by the internet era. Nearly two decades on, and as many online have pointed out, viewers less interested in hour upon hour of Prince Philip trivia can turn to Netflix, Amazon, or any number of other streaming services.

Hey, you can’t make everyone happy all the time – too much, too little, channels and news services are still scrambling for the Goldilocks ‘just right’ amount of coverage when it comes to the palace’s sad news. Whether you're an ardent royalist, diehard republican or somewhere in between, the coverage and subsequent controversy has doubtless shone a new spotlight on the role of British royals come 2021.

READ MORE: What Happens Now That Prince Philip Has Died?

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