At the BBC, the number of complaints about the programming after the announcement of the death of Prince Philip has well exceeded 100,000. Never before in British television history has been so much complained about the programming of the public broadcaster, according to British media.
The BBC’s previous complaint record dates back to 2005, when 63,000 people complained about it Jerry Springer: The Opera. According to the British newspaper The Guardian 110,994 people have complained in recent days.
Special complaint form
After Philip’s death, the BBC radically changed the programming, which led to the cancellation of numerous radio and TV programs. Many viewers zapped away. Both BBC1 and BBC2 had lower viewing figures than a week earlier.
Within hours of Philips death, the number of complaints about the reporting had increased to such an extent that the BBC placed a special complaint form on the website to steer the flow of complaints in the right direction. This form was removed again on Sunday, making it more difficult for people to express their displeasure.
Prins Andrew
According to an internal BBC complaint log, which has been reviewed by The Guardian, viewers and listeners mainly felt that too much attention had been paid to the death of the prince. Nor did they understand why the BBC had adjusted the programming on all channels, while it could have been chosen to do so on only one of the channels.
Incidentally, not all complaints were about the extent of the BBC’s coverage. There were also about 400 complaints about the broadcast of one response from Prince Andrew. The prince was friends with the late American businessman Jeffrey Epstein, who has been convicted of sexual abuse. Prince Andrew is accused of also participating in Epstein’s abusive practices and for that reason has provisionally relinquished his princely duties.
In addition, The Guardian also noted more than 200 complaints about the presenters’ clothing. According to the complainants, they would have been disrespectfully dressed when Prince Philip’s death was announced.
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