"Too Many Special Reports on Prince Philip's Memorial," UK BBC Receives Record Complaints

Complaints Received from Over 110,000 Viewers
"Urgent Issues Like COVID-19 Were Overlooked," Criticism Arises

[Image source=EPA Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Suhwan] Following the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, husband of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, the British broadcasting industry and media have been in a continuous mourning atmosphere, but it has been revealed that citizens are actually opposing it, calling the excessive memorial broadcasts over the top.

According to The Guardian on the 12th (local time), more than 110,994 viewers have filed complaints to the BBC regarding the special memorial broadcast system for Prince Philip. This is the highest number of viewer complaints in the BBC's 99-year history.

Earlier, immediately after the announcement of Prince Philip's death by the British royal family on the 9th, the BBC suspended its regular evening broadcasts on two of its channels (BBC One, BBC Two) and organized a special broadcast system to commemorate Prince Philip.

However, when the BBC suspended all regular broadcasts during the prime time on Friday evening, viewers reacted negatively. The Guardian reported, "During the past weekend, an unprecedented number of viewer complaints were received by the BBC," adding, "The memorial broadcast for Prince Philip became the most negatively reviewed program among all BBC broadcasts."

One of the viewer comments obtained by The Guardian stated, "There are many urgent issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic, but ignoring all of them and airing only royal memorial broadcasts throughout the evening is excessive."

After the flood of viewer inquiries following the Prince Philip memorial broadcast, the BBC provided a unified viewer feedback form to simplify the complaint process, but on the 11th, this form was removed from the website again. The Guardian pointed out, "With the BBC removing the form again, it has become more difficult for viewers to submit complaints."

Meanwhile, before the Prince Philip memorial broadcast, the program that received the most viewer complaints was the 2005 musical broadcast "Jerry Springer: The Opera," which received over 63,000 complaints from Christian believers for containing blasphemous content.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.