Duke of Edinburgh: Funeral Build-Up

[James Martin]

100k complaints about the coverage. Have these people have nothing better to do? They have a right to complain if they feel it necessary but... Bizarre.

It cost £1.20 for a day.

I think if you pay for a service you expect it.

Actually I think this highlights the whole argument to move to optional subscription. The BBC have become complacent. They take the license fee payer for granted. They can do largely what they want, even cover for the likes of Savile, without comeback or recompense.

If our public broadcaster was forced to work in a "customer-supplier" culture, they would have to consider what their customers wanted, not what they believed was good for them.

The problem, as I see it, is that the BBC does not act in the belief that the license fee payer is a paying customer.

That, fundamentally, is what needs to change.

I don't understand that the coverage of Duke of Edinburgh's death is not a service. Cat A deaths don't happen very often (thankfully) but when they do the BBC should be there to lead the coverage. The BBC were right to pull all their television services together excluding CBBC and CBeebies. I also think it was right to pull together 1 speech programme used on all BBC Radio Stations. I believe this also gives heads of output to check the content coming up for the next few hours and days to make sure nothing will go out on TV and Radio that may cause offence (such a joke about the Royal Family or person involved in the story).

The BBC is not a customer-supplier model as if you are looking for that kind of model look to BT or Sky. The BBC is the Primary Public Service Broadcaster of the United Kingdom and therefore it has more to it that just making sure EastEnders is on BBC one at 8pm come Hell or High Water.

The licence fee payer is not one size fits all person. But this event is of a national significands and it happens very rarely so if 100K want to complain then let them complain after all there was 2-2.5million not complaining but watching the programmes that were aired.

No change is required.

Yet the BBC was more diverse in their scheduling of the death of Diana in 1997 than in 2021. We live in a period of fragmented broadcasting where viewers expect more tightly targeted output for their demographics than ever before.

There's no issue with bringing them all together for the initial announcement and a short retrospective of his life, but there was no need for the extended output to be simulcast on other channels.

All last Friday did was send linear viewers to Channel 4 on Friday night and others to streaming services.

Let's also look at last October when Boris announced Lockdown 2 - it got pushed further and further back so the schedules got pulled for hours of mass speculation. When Boris finally turned up the minute he'd dropped the bombshell the news was yanked off of One - just so they could start Strictly on time!