TheBBC was hit with a flood of complaints over the overexposure of Prince Philip's death that interrupted regular programming on the days following the news of his passing away.
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Record breaking number of complaints
The amount of complaints were so massive that it actually broke the record for the most ever complaints received in UK television history. Since news broke out that the Duke of Edinburgh had passed away last Friday, 9 April, the UK's national broadcaster completely scrapped what it had originally scheduled in order to dedicate wall-to-wall coverage of the Prince's life.
BBC4 was completely taken off the air, the Beep only diffused Prince Philip related content and even radio stations committed to change their schedule to include coverage of the Royal's death.
This resulted in thousands of people getting upset for missing out on Friday night staples like Eastenders and Masterchef. According to statistics provided by The Guardian, over 100,000 people contacted the BBC to complain about the wall-to-wall coverage of Prince Philip's death that disrupted regular programming which prompted the broadcaster to set up an official complaint form.
The last time the BBC received such a large volume of complaints from viewers was when they aired Jerry Springer: The Musical which generated over 63,000 complaints back in 2005.
What the viewers had to say
One angry viewer expressed what they believed was an unnecessary amount of exposure:
Coverage of this event took up the entire evening broadcast to the exclusion of all other topics, including the ongoing topic of the pandemic. Some coverage was justified, but not to this extent.
And another added:
It was sad news Prince Philip [sic] died on Friday and I understand the BBC had to acknowledge the fact but on every single one of its channels? Why [not] just put it on one channel for those that want to listen to that drivel and the rest of us can have a bit of music.
