The BBC has set up a dedicated complaints page after its extensive coverage of Prince Philip’s death received widespread criticism.
The Duke of Edinburgh died yesterday morning at Windsor Castle aged 99.
The dedicated page lets people register a complaint by providing an email address to receive an official response from the BBC at a later date.
The page does not allow viewers to submit any specific feedback.
The BBC’s standard complaints form allows people to provide up to 2,000 characters of text to specify their concerns.
“Dear BBC” is now trending as people use Twitter to voice their complaints.
Some users have called the amount of focused coverage insensitive in light of the Covid-19 death toll. Others have called it “propaganda” for the monarchy.
The broadcaster suspended its schedule yesterday across multiple television channels and radio stations in favour of special programming about the Duke of Edinburgh.
BBC One and BBC Two provided rolling news coverage of Prince Philip’s death, while BBC Four displayed a message urging viewers to switch over for a major news report. BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio Five Live also broadcasted special programming.
One of the programmes suspended was the MasterChef final. The 2019 final was watched live by 5.5 million people.
The broadcaster continued its special programming today with a BBC One special report on Prince Philip from 10am – 2pm.
Several shows including Saturday Kitchen Live and Football Focus were moved to BBC Two as a result.
Former BBC presenter Simon McCoy tweeted: “BBC1 and BBC2 showing the same thing. And presumably the News Channel too. Why? I know this is a huge event. But surely the public deserve a choice of programming?”
The BBC has declined to comment on its decision not to offer viewers a form to submit specific complaints about coverage of Prince Philip’s death.
Featured image credit: Elliott Brown on Flikr.
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Whilst I do feel it was appropriate to give extended coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh, his National contribution and his very interesting life, this should have been on one channel only. What was the point of BBC broadcasting this on both BBC1 and BBC2 simultaneously??? It made No Sense at all!!!
I was one of many who was looking forward to the MasterChef Final! And the return of Have I Got News for You, actually. They could have been moved to BBC2, for instance. Now we Still have not been given a new date for MasterChef, why is this?
I wonder how many of ‘Greek Phil’s’ children will turn up at his funeral, legitimate and rest !!!
Who cares that he’s dead.
After the comments ‘Greek’ Phil made about the massacre at Dunblane school about banning cricket bats,
Taking all the programmes off in a time when the public are unable to go anywhere and do anything is ridiculous. Very sorry for the death of Prince Philip but he was nearly 100. What about all the young deaths during this crisis and the definite need of the programmes people watch to try and keep normality. We were gutted on Friday about masterchef final and the soaps – normality. Not necessary. Sincere condolences to the Queen but where’s the balance.
I understand that the BBC needs to show its condolences to the Royal family following the death of the Queen’s husband; however I don’t understand the wall-to-wall coverage on both BBC1 and BBC2 of his death, and the simultaneously shut-down of BBC4. It’s almost like we are being forced to watch this coverage as a form of penance. Why? What about the licence payers who believe the Monarchy is the the greatest burden on our society? And, I don’t mean financial, I mean the detrimental effect it has on the life expectancies of working people. Why should anyone in the UK give deference to anyone else because an accident of birth?
Why does the bbc do this. Even now after you opened the complaint form to protest the coverage of this event, you carry on with the same blanket coverage that the firm is addressing. Do you not learn anything or does it show the complete contempt you hold your customers. What they want is just of no consequence to this organisation and you still expect the same people to fund the same thing that they’re complaining about
The sooner the BBC licence fee is abolished, the better for us all. Showing this much coverage of Prince Phillip on BBC1 and BBC2 is ridiculous. We pay a fee for a choice of programmes, what choice were we given? None! Shame on you.
Are we getting a rebate on our TV licence.
People who live on their own need the TV with things to watch. We all have deaths in the family and appreciate that his death upset his family but do not take away my right to watch things I want to watch instead of the same thing on all the channels