Forex Trading For Beginners 2021: BBC receives 109,741 complaints over Prince Philip coverage

The BBC has confirmed it received 109,741 complaints from the public over its coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh's death.

The corporation cleared its schedules to cover the news when Prince Philip died on Friday, at the age of 99.

EastEnders and the MasterChef final were replaced by news programmes, while BBC Four was taken off air completely.

The BBC said it was "a significant event which generated a lot of interest both nationally and internationally".

It added: "We acknowledge some viewers were unhappy with the level of coverage given, and impact this had on the billed TV and Radio schedules.

"We do not make such changes without careful consideration and the decisions made reflect the role the BBC plays as the national broadcaster, during moments of national significance.

"We are grateful for all feedback, and we always listen to the response from our audiences."

The corporation's fortnightly complaints report was published on Thursday.

The figure makes the coverage of Prince Philip's death the most complained-about piece of programming in BBC history.

Prince Philip funeral: What are the plans and timings?

Other programmes that attracted a high volume of correspondence included the broadcast of Jerry Springer: The Opera, which received 63,000 complaints in 2005; and Russell Brand's prank call to actor Andrew Sachs, which drew 42,000 complaints in 2008.

The BBC was not alone in adjusting its schedule to reflect Prince Philip's death, with ITV and Channel 4 both broadcasting extended news coverage.

However, many viewers turned away as the day wore on, with ITV's Friday night audience declining by 60% in comparison to the previous week, according to overnight figures.

Analysis box by David Sillito, Media and arts correspondent

For a significant number of viewers, replacing the final of MasterChef with programming celebrating the life of Prince Philip was the wrong decision. Quite how many would have complained if the BBC had done the opposite is the unanswered question.

What is also interesting is how many older viewers have complained. Traditional "linear" TV has been a reliable friend during months of lockdown, and while younger viewers have embraced streaming around 20 million of us are still watching at peak time each evening. Schedules, even in an age of YouTube, iPlayer and Netflix, still matter.

It is also worth mentioning that, in these days of online complaints forms, it is rather easier to register a complaint than it was in the era of trying to get through to the BBC switchboard. Indeed, some people contacted the BBC to complain that the BBC was making it too easy to complain.

Read more:Royal death coverage poses quandary for BBC

BBC One's audience also dropped six per cent week-on-week during the coverage about Prince Philip, while BBC Two lost two-thirds of its audience, with just 340,000 people tuning in at any time between 7pm and 11pm.

The most-watched programme on a single channel that evening was Channel 4's Gogglebox, with 4.2 million viewers.

The BBC put a dedicated form on its website later that evening to allow viewers to complain about the TV coverage, in recognition of the volume of complaints.

The form was removed the following afternoon, after the number of complaints began to fall, the corporation said.

Prince Philip's funeral will be held at St George's Chapel, in the grounds of Windsor Castle, at 15:00 BST on Saturday 17 April. The procession and funeral will be televised.