BBC inundated with complaints about coverage of Prince Philip's death.

gibbsy

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The BBC has had to set up a special page to keep pace with the number of complaints about the wall to wall coverage of the death of Prince Philip. When the death was announced earlier today the BBC went into overdrive. All radio stations went onto the same coverage. BBC1 and BBC2 along with News 24 put out the same programmes. BBC4 shut down for the night and all of the evenings broadcasts were cancelled.

Why?

Did they think no one had heard the sad news. The Prince had lead a good life and was a war hero but I think even he would have been up in arms about this stunt that the Beeb had pulled. We really didn't need to hear the same stories over and over again for hour after hour. I didn't expect this of the BBC, one channel, the news channel maybe but it was more akin to watching the North Korea Broadcasting Company.

If the BBC were a subscription channel then I would have thrown in the towel.

 
Because the BBC is out of touch.

That being said, complaining to them about it is just stupid. It's still an important death. Change the channel or turn the TV off and move on with your life.
 
The BBC often forgets it has a news channel and simul-broadcasts on the News Channel and BBC1 however today it hit a new depth.

I feel we should be able to claim a day back from our licence fee.
 
I didn't say it in the other thread obviously, but it was an absolute joke. OTT beyond belief. Christ knows what it will be like when the Queen eventually passes.

Be sad the bloke has died yes, pay tribute, but let's not get into the realms of the ridiculous.
 
I actually found the link and submitted my email address (which is what it asks you to do). We have not watched any of the output from any of the BBC or ITV channels today, although we wouid have been watching the Masterchef final tonight ....

I expect a standard response of 'thank you for your submission. We will look into this' and then never hear from them again.

I completely accept it is an important event and I cannot imagine how the Queen is dealing with the loss of her partner of 73 years. But completely cancelling all BBC output except for rolling coverage on 3 or 4 BBC TV channels and cutting BBC4 entirely is overdoing it. We all pay a TV licence. I know of only a handful of people who have been happy to watch the last 12 hours or so of this. The rest want to be entertained (because after this last year goodness knows many people need that. Don't underestimate the mental and emotional toll this past 13 months has had, and the last thing they need is rolling coverage of the death of someone they have never personally met).

Granted there are other TV channels, but it's the principle of it.

We, by comparison, are now watching The Crime Channel. I call it studying the human condition ....
 
I actually found the link and submitted my email address (which is what it asks you to do). We have not watched any of the output from any of the BBC or ITV channels today, although we wouid have been watching the Masterchef final tonight ....

I expect a standard response of 'thank you for your submission. We will look into this' and then never hear from them again.

I completely accept it is an important event and I cannot imagine how the Queen is dealing with the loss of her partner of 73 years. But completely cancelling all BBC output except for rolling coverage on 3 or 4 BBC TV channels and cutting BBC4 entirely is overdoing it. We all pay a TV licence. I know of only a handful of people who have been happy to watch the last 12 hours or so of this. The rest want to be entertained (because after this last year goodness knows many people need that. Don't underestimate the mental and emotional toll this past 13 months has had, and the last thing they need is rolling coverage of the death of someone they have never personally met).

Granted there are other TV channels, but it's the principle of it.

We, by comparison, are now watching The Crime Channel. I call it studying the human condition ....
Well said.
 
Because the BBC is out of touch.

That being said, complaining to them about it is just stupid. It's still an important death. Change the channel or turn the TV off and move on with your life.
I wouldn't have watched BBC tonight any way, watch very little of the station save for the news at six o'clock. I always listen to Radio2 but after half an hour that was turned off and I've played CDs all afternoon. I bet Philip would have a bloody good chuckle over the coverage.
 
The BBC could give North Korea a run for its money when it comes to royalist bootlicking.
 

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I have every sympathy for The Queen and her family over the passing of The Duke of Edinburgh. However, I can't believe the amount of air time this has been given by the BBC. I have just checked, and BBC1 is still covering this now, I am not entirely certain, but I think it's been the same all day. There is even another BBC1 "News Special" on at 10am Saturday which is a 4 hour long programme! I'm not sure how to quantify the relative importance of the two people, but I don't recall the death of The Queen Mother getting anywhere near this amount of coverage.
 
The BBC could give North Korea a run for its money when it comes to royalist bootlicking.
When did North Korea stop being a republic? The proper name for North Korea is Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

To be fair though, people do have a point, but it wasn't just the BBC. At one point, all 5 of the main TV channels were running something about him. I watched an hour of the coverage, and then it became like groundhog day, with everything being repeated by all the channels.

Slightly off topic, but something that amused me was El Pais' coverage. The Spanish site had a few articles about him at the top of the main page. Their English version? Absolutely nada. Given they are supposed to have quite a wide readership amongst ex pats I'm surprised.
 
Is this a British thing, or would it be the same in the rest of the world?
Yesterday afternoon the 5 main* channels were all showing tributes, I saw alerts on other channels saying to switch to a news channel etc.
I've never lived anywhere but the UK, but we do love a bit of blanket TV coverage for events.
I have always had rte, but I don't watch it that often or remember rte1&2 showing the same thing on a loop.
*I know other channels are available and we live in a multichannel world.
 
Not surprised about complaints and not taken by the sheer managed state craft grief.

Fortunately there is wide range of tv now for free. And with internet and various other forms of entertainment this can all be swerved.

We are coming out of another lock down and we all should be well versed in using the array of entertainment available to us.

This site is as good as any in looking at that next bit of entertaining those bothered enough to complain about royal death coverage would do well to look over here instead.
 
Yep, I switched the TV off last night, played some music and read a book.

The coverage was completely over the top. Yep, if you want and need to, devote one station to it, but to be showing the exact same coverage on your two main stations, as well as your dedicated news channel, and blank out others, was completely unnecessary. Believe it or not BBC, not everybody in the country is a royalist.

Years ago, when the Queen Mother died, I worked in the civil service, and didn't want to take part in the minute's silence they had for her. I took myself off to a meeting room, where other people had the same thought, it was actually pretty busy. As there should be recognition that people want to pay respects, there should also, on the flip side, be recognition that many people couldn't care less (many people sadly die each day).
 
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I‘m an ardent republican so have avoided the BBC and as said above there are plenty of other things to watch and do if you want to avoid the wall to wall coverage. I listen to BBC radio but seldom bother with its TV coverage anyway.

Can’t be much fun being the BBC though, they get blamed for being loony left, slow to innovate, poor value for money financed by an unfair tax and now obsessed royal toadies. Can’t really win, perhaps people would prefer the state run North Korean channels or advert laden American TV?
 
It's not just the BBC - we were flicking through the channels last night and counted 20 channels all showing the same kind of coverage. Turned on the tv this morning and it's still the same. Excessive isn't a strong enough word.
 
It even took over the sport! What a world class polo player he was/a travesty he never won sports personality of the year etc etc
 

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