By BBC receives ‘100,000 complaints’ over coverage of Prince Philip death
The BBC has received 100,000 complaints from members of the public over its coverage of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh’s death.
The original television schedules were completely cleared to allow for the coverage, after he passed away on Friday morning aged 99 at Windsor Castle.
Programmes such as Eastenders and the MasterChef final were replaced by news programmes covering the death of Prince Philip, while BBC Four was taken off air completely.
Other television channels adjusted their schedules to allow for full coverage of the news, including ITV and Channel 4.
The BBC said: “We are proud of our coverage and the role we play during moments of national significance.”
Although the corporation has declined to confirm the number of complaints it received, the Sun newspaper has reported on the matter, claiming that the total number of complaints was 100,000.
This would make the coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh‘s death the most complained-about item in BBC broadcasting history.
Due to the significant number of complaints being made, on Friday evening the BBC put up a dedicated form on its website which allowed members of the public to complain about the coverage.
After the number of complaints began to fall on Saturday, the form was then taken down, the corporation has said.
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