The UK’s major broadcasters passed on their schedules on Friday to cover the public of Prince Philip’s death from wall to wall, but the output was a turning point for Britons in key evening viewing times.
The rated data cracked by Deadline shows that the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 all suffered from audience decline between 19:00 and 23:00, when broadcasters drew up special coverage of the Duke of Edinburgh’s demise .
BBC One, the UK’s most watched, lost 6% of its audience last night compared to Friday 2 April (full figures below). The sister channel BBC Two, which simulated the BBC News channel for much of the evening, fell by 65%, according to Barb figures provided by overnights.tv.
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It was the dissatisfaction with the extent of the BBC’s coverage that it was flooded with complaints. The BBC has even put up an official complaint form on its website that makes it easier for viewers to voice their concerns about “too much TV coverage of the death of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh”.
It was a similar story elsewhere. ITV, the BBC’s biggest commercial competitor, had a 60% lead on Friday night, while Channel 4 – which aired a new special at 7pm – fell 8.5%.
Channel 4, however, largely adhered to its planned roster in the evening and was rewarded with the highest rating program of the day on a single channel in the form of Studio Lambert’s Gogglebox, which was viewed by almost 4.2 million viewers.
The only public broadcaster that posted an improved audience a week ago was Channel 5, which rose 2%. Like Channel 4, the network owned by ViacomCBS largely adhered to the original evening schedule.
The highest news report of the day was the BBC 6 PM news with just over 4.6 million viewers, while being simulated by BBC One, BBC Two and BBC News. BBC One also boasted the most special broadcast on Prince Philip, with 2.4 million subscriptions HRH The Duke of Edinburgh Remember from 19:00 to 21:00.
Below are the public listeners’ average audiences between 19:00 and 23:00 last night, compared to last week:
BBC One
April 9: 2.41M
April 2: 2.56M
BBC Two
April 9: 340 000
April 2: 980,000
ITV
April 9: 1.34M
April 2: 3.39M
Channel 4
April 9: 1.62 million
April 2: 1.77M
Channel 5
April 9: 900,000
April 2: 880,000