THE BBC has removed its targeted online form to allow people to complain about “too much TV coverage” of the death of Prince Philip after the number of complaints reached a peak.
The broadcaster halted normal broadcasting across “all networks” on Friday to allow for special news coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s passing.
BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Scotland, BBC News, and BBC Alba were broadcasting identical feeds through the afternoon. This news special continued through the night across all five of those channels.
On radio, many of the BBC’s stations were also broadcasting the same feed, although some normal programming seems to have resumed across those networks.
Planned scheduling has been back in place since 2pm on Saturday.
The corporation’s decision to axe Friday night staples in favour of pre-recorded tributes prompted so many complaints it added a bespoke banner to its complaints page, allowing people to more easily register their dissatisfaction with the high amount of coverage of the duke’s death.
READ MORE: BBC flooded with complaints of 'too much TV coverage' of death of Prince Philip
While the broadcaster would not say how many complaints it received, it is understood the rate at which they were coming in had started to fall.
The banner read: “Death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh – too much coverage on BBC TV.
“We're receiving complaints about too much TV coverage of the death of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
“To register a complaint without having to complete our webform or provide any details – apart from your email address (which we’ll use to send you our response) – visit this BBC Complaints Page.”
The final words are hyperlinked to another page where entering an email address is enough to register a complaint with the BBC on the topic.
Registering a complaint is normally a much longer process, involving at least three steps and asking people to write up to 2000 characters explaining their issue.
READ MORE: What happened when the Queen and Prince Philip visited my old office in 2001
A fortnightly bulletin of all complaints is due to be published on Wednesday. The broadcaster has yet to publish full details of its programming around the duke’s funeral on April 17.
According to Barb overnight ratings ratings, BBC One drew an average of 2.41m viewers between 7pm and 11pm on Friday when it broadcast a two-hour Prince Philip special. The week prior, the channel drew an average of 2.56m viewers.
BBC Two, which showed the same Prince Philip special saw a steeper drop off with a 64% drop according to figures.
READ MORE: BBC and ITV viewing figures plummet during blanket Prince Philip coverage
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