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BBC 'will learn lessons from coverage of Prince Philip's death'

BBC 'will learn lessons from coverage of Prince Philip's death'
© Reuters
The BBC's director-general reportedly says that the corporation will learn lessons following complaints over the level of its coverage of Prince Philip's death in April.

BBC director-general Tim Davie has insisted that the corporation will 'learn lessons' from its coverage of the death of Prince Philip earlier this year.

The Duke of Edinburgh - companion to The Queen for more than 80 years - died on April 9 at the age of 99 and as per protocol, BBC programming was interrupted for the announcement of his death shortly after midday.

The decision was then taken to cancel the day's remaining programming on almost every BBC television channel and radio station in order to provide continuous coverage of the major news event.

The move meant that for most of the day, BBC One and BBC Two broadcast identical programming and shows such as the MasterChef final, an England Women match and EastEnders were all either axed or moved online to make way.

As a result the BBC received a record number of complaints in the days that followed, with almost 110,000 registering their dissatisfaction at the level of coverage before the online complaints form was taken down.

According to minutes from the BBC's board meeting on April 22, Davie said that in light of the viewer backlash, there were "lessons to be learned" for future coverage of events of similar magnitude.

Davie added, however, that the level of coverage "had reflected the role of the BBC as the national broadcaster and the response of production teams had been accomplished, both in the implementation of the technical plans and editorial".

Coverage of Philip's funeral later in the month averaged more than 13 million viewers in the UK, with the majority watching the BBC's broadcast.

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