Duke of Edinburgh: Funeral Build-Up

[TVNewsViewer]

When will the BBC One schedules be updated to amend for he coverage of the funeral? No changes have yet been made to BBC One schedules, even ITV schedules still have ITV Racing for Saturday afternoon, why the delay?

Perhaps they are deciding how many of their channels to show it on.

[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!

[Rob]

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!

I think we get the message James... thank you.

[Cando]

All last Friday did was send linear viewers to Channel 4 on Friday night

C4 was down week on week.
Diana wasn't Cat A. She wasn't even a HRH anymore. So coverage is not comparable.

[James Martin]

.Diana wasn't Cat A. She wasn't even a HRH anymore. So coverage is not comparable.

Diana was totally different - "tragic" as opposed to "sad" in that it was not expected, though I understand those sort of obits were still rehearsed from time-to-time.

I'm not sure she would have been removed from Cat A despite the circumstances; anywhere I've worked in the past decade has had Kate on "the list" as the mother of a future monarch.

[Markymark]

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.

Indeed. Or in real terms just a quarter of a pint of IPA

Edit. Hang on, the Beeb cost just 43.6p per day (and even less than that on a leap year)

[Inspector Sands]

.Diana wasn't Cat A. She wasn't even a HRH anymore. So coverage is not comparable.

Diana was totally different - "tragic" as opposed to "sad" in that it was not expected, though I understand those sort of obits were still rehearsed from time-to-time.

I'm not sure she would have been removed from Cat A despite the circumstances; anywhere I've worked in the past decade has had Kate on "the list" as the mother of a future monarch.

Different broadcasters have different policies, but I've never heard of her being in the top category, and as mentioned Diana definately wasn't in 1997.

'Mother of a future monarch' is pushing it a bit as a qualifier, especially as they're still 3 generations away. And there's currently quite a few mothers and fathers of future monarchs

Those in which category change too occasionally, now I think there's only 3 people in the top one. It might be that Camilla and Kate might raise in importance once Charles ascends to the throne

[Steve in Pudsey]

I think with Diana there were a significant differences.

We didn't have the digital channels, so BBC2 went it's own way for sport during the afternoon.

The circumstances of her death were unexpected, and genuinely a developing breaking news story, so the coverage was more than the same 20 minutes of content being repeated for 24 hours (albeit with minor updates as funeral details emerge and more tributes are paid)

The mood of the nation seemed very different, there was more apparent public grief than we are currently observing, probably due to the circumstances.

[TVFan]

I messaged Huw Edwards on how long coverage is expected to be and came back with this reply.



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[XIII]

I'm guessing Football Focus will move to BBC Two if the coverage starts at say 12pm. 1200-1630 gives them a chance to put the news as a clean break for the football at 1710.

[MrUdagawa]

.Diana wasn't Cat A. She wasn't even a HRH anymore. So coverage is not comparable.

Diana was totally different - "tragic" as opposed to "sad" in that it was not expected, though I understand those sort of obits were still rehearsed from time-to-time.

I'm not sure she would have been removed from Cat A despite the circumstances; anywhere I've worked in the past decade has had Kate on "the list" as the mother of a future monarch.

Different broadcasters have different policies, but I've never heard of her being in the top category, and as mentioned Diana definately wasn't in 1997.

'Mother of a future monarch' is pushing it a bit as a qualifier, especially as they're still 3 generations away. And there's currently quite a few mothers and fathers of future monarchs

Those in which category change too occasionally, now I think there's only 3 people in the top one. It might be that Camilla and Kate might raise in importance once Charles ascends to the throne

I don't think coverage can be pigeon-holed based on the Category of the individual involved. The news networks need to rely on their news sense. For example with Diana it was obviously a massive story given who she was and her public profile leading up to that point. That news-sense judgement is far more important than what category someone is in on a list.
I would say the same is true for Harry. He may have stepped back from public royal duties but I don't think anyone could argue that should anything happen to him the BBC wouldn't stop everything.

I think all that categories offer is perhaps a protocol guideline into minor stylistic nuances, (the wording of a script, how it's repeated and then the anthem is played etc.) that if they weren't followed might upset the palace. If it's a shock death like Diana then it's probably easier to go with the more official Category A template that's in place rather than risk being insensitive.

[James2001]

C4 was down week on week.

That was due to the low viewership of their extended news special dragging the average for the evening down. The post-news programming rated higher than the previous week.

[XIII]

C4 was down week on week.

That was due to the low viewership of their extended news special dragging the average for the evening down. The post-news programming rated higher than the previous week.

I think Channel 4 will have been fine with how primetime did, If anything, they may have thought they would be down a lot more,

[James2001]

They practically had it handed to them on a plate, they'll have been ecstatic. Channel 5 too.

[AlfieMulcahy]

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.

The licence fee is ~43p a day.