Duke of Edinburgh: Funeral Build-Up

[VMPhil]

Can we put this conversation to rest now or at least move it to a different thread? It’s been done to death now.

[onetrickypony]

Back to last Friday and ratings I've still not seen any ratings for the actual 6pm and 10pm news bulletins, or indeed the afternoon coverage. The primetime ratings tell one story (which really doesn't need repeating over and over again), but not the whole story.

According to this blog post on the media's response:

The BBC’s 6 O’Clock News was the highest rated programme of the night with 4.6m viewers (though it was simulcast on BBC One, Two and the News Channel). The second highest was Gogglebox on Channel 4 with 4.2m.

Some numbers I've obtained...

BBC ONE
7.00pm Local News 3.71
10.45pm Local News 2.33

ITV
6.00pm Local News 2.86
10.50pm Local News 886,000

[excel99]

CNN have added Prince Philip's funeral to their schedule this weekend. The extent of their coverage appears to be from 2pm-3:30pm British time on Saturday, but perhaps their schedule is yet to be completely finalised.

We can also assume it's being presented from New York, as cnn.com states Anderson Cooper is anchoring. I had wondered if Christiane Amanpour might lead the coverage as someone who is based in the UK but is also 'name' in the US. She also presented the Queen Mother's funeral I think. But clearly not. With the events taking place behind castle walls though, not being on location won't matter so much

[valley]

Looks like Sky are doing a shortened Soccer Saturday from 1200-1500, with generic "Sky Sports News" scheduled after that point. Sky Sports Racing are scheduled to take Sky Sports News from 1445 until 1615. Currently the only live sport between 1500 and 1630 is IPL and Golf on Sky, BT have Bundesliga and MotoGP scheduled.

Sky One has the funeral scheduled from 1445 until 1600 - no other channel has tweaked their EPG entries and added it as far as I can see.

[nwtv2003]

According to the Freeview App, Channel 4 by no surprise is not showing the funeral, but will be taking the two minutes silence, with 2:55 to 3:05pm scheduled out for it. There does appear to be a longer Channel 4 News at 5:45pm.

[EJnutz]

The Craft Store (Hochanda) are suspending theire service from 3pm, per Freeview Guide, as a mark of respect to HRH Prince Phillip.

[m_in_m]

The funeral service will probably last around 45 to 60 minutes, before the Duke's coffin taken to his final resting place within the castle.

The Duke's final resting place will be different to where he is laid to rest on Saturday.

[Brekkie]

According to the Freeview App, Channel 4 by no surprise is not showing the funeral, but will be taking the two minutes silence, with 2:55 to 3:05pm scheduled out for it. There does appear to be a longer Channel 4 News at 5:45pm.

Understandable and the right choice to show an alternative, but not sure there is as much PSB value in showing "Four in a Bed" as there would be more family friendly content like the childrens programmes shown on the morning of Diana's funeral in 1997.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ud3Wn5fcskw

[James2001]

Channel 4 haven't shown childrens' programmes for years, so they won't have any to be able to show unless they were to rush purchase rights at the last minute, which presumably they wouldn't see as worth it.

[excel99]

The Channel 5 schedule is rather odd for Saturday at the moment. From the Freeview website:
1215 Rugby
1445 Around the World by Train
1515 5 News Update
1520 Film: A Knight's Tale
1620 5 News Update
1625 Film: A Knight's Tale
1755 5 News Weekend
I'd have thought they would be wanting a 5 News Update scheduled for 1500 to incorporate the silence (which is what they do on Remembrance Sunday every year), not 1515 part way through the funeral

[Brekkie]

No but the have family friendly movies or content a bit more sedate than Four In a Bed - The Secret Life of the Zoo for example. Ultimately though if you opt not to watch the funeral you can't really be offended by what is offered as an alternative.

[UTVLifer]

The funeral service will probably last around 45 to 60 minutes, before the Duke's coffin taken to his final resting place within the castle.

The Duke's final resting place will be different to where he is laid to rest on Saturday.

Yes, for the foreseeable the Duke of Edinburgh will be interred into the Royal Vault at Windsor until the Queen dies and then the pair of them will be given a final resting place together, somewhere inside St George's Chapel most probably as that's where most monarchs and their consorts are buried

[Brekkie]

The Channel 5 schedule is rather odd for Saturday at the moment. From the Freeview website:
1215 Rugby
1445 Around the World by Train
1515 5 News Update
1520 Film: A Knight's Tale
1620 5 News Update
1625 Film: A Knight's Tale
1755 5 News Weekend
I'd have thought they would be wanting a 5 News Update scheduled for 1500 to incorporate the silence (which is what they do on Remembrance Sunday every year), not 1515 part way through the funeral

Did 5 News have any extended bulletins at all over the weekend?

[KryptonITV]

It has been confirmed by ITV that the Scottish Grand National will be pushed back by 24 hours in respect so as not to clash with Prince Philip's funeral. The TV Guides have not yet been updated with this information though.

https://www.itv.com/racing/articles/sche...ing-on-itv

[bfgarmy]

Not to sway too much from the build up intention of thread,
In today's episode of his podcast, Jordan North has briefly gone into what it was like being on air on Radio 1 at the time of the announcement, plus some general chat about the topic and the funeral.
https://play.acast.com/s/sextedmyboss/he...ngtolondon

Speaking of Radio 1, it was quite a plesant surprise that once they separated for the joint coverage that the presenting line-up largely stayed as normal. It would've been quite easy to draft in 'safe pair of hands' but they kept faith in the usual DJs at those times who were excellent.

The radio coverage in the hours following the death did seem to miss the mark - doing a joint broadcast covering all the BBC national stations for several hours did seem a error as what your 1Xtra listener wants will be very different to a Radio 4 listener and everybody airing the same may've reduced the chance of any oversights but left no choice for listeners so you end up just driving quite a few away. The several hours bit being the issue more than the initial joint broadcast itself.

I can't help thinking that doing joint broadcast in the first hour then pairing up certain stations might've done better (e.g. Radio 1/1Xtra/Asian Network simulcasting together, Radio 2 & 6 Music airing the same output and then Radio 4 & 5 Live airing joint more speech-heavy output).
However, I guess in the situation the BBC are in where they'll get pelters whatever they do they chose to choose the least risky option and just do the one broadcast.

I did find the instrumentals played by Radio 1 at first an odd choice, you'd have imagine they'd have a more sombre playlist ready to go but that still had appropriate lyrics. It almost made it seem like Prince Philip didn't like lyrics and actually makes the whole situation feel much more uncomfortable than if they'd just played slightly calmer songs than usual but with lyrics. Similarly going to the simulcast so abruptly cutting stations off mid-song and sometimes sentence and without warning probably caused more worry than actually giving DJs on air some pre-warning that there'd be simulcast at X point and allowing the DJs to explain that we'd be joining the joint broadcast for an "important update"/"news on the royal family"

And given the endless complaints and even complaints about complaints etc I am slightly surprised Radio 1 playing 'Drivers Licence' slipped under the radar. It's a suitably slow song but given Phillip's motor accident a few years back, it didn't the wisest song to give a play and the sort of thing that normally the tabloids and #DefundTheBBC lot would leap on and have pitchforks at the ready.