Impact of death of Prince Philip on UK TV networks

Many of the main UK TV channels have suspended normal programming following the announcement of the death of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh.

The news broke on the BBC News Channel and BBC Two (which was simulcasting the News Channel as scheduled) at 12.04pm. Presenter Martine Croxall read a statement from Buckingham Palace.

At 12.09pm, the BBC News Channel faded to black briefly, to allow BBC One to join their coverage. A black and white ‘News Report’ caption then appeared, and presenter Martine Croxall repeated the news, for the benefit of BBC One viewers.

BBC One was showing an edition of Paramedics on Scene when the news broke. The programme was slowly faded out at 12.09pm and after a few seconds, BBC One joined the BBC News Channel.

Here’s what happened on BBC One:

BBC One and BBC Two will continue simulcasting the BBC News Channel for the remainder of the day.

BBC Alba and the BBC Scotland channel came on air earlier than planned to broadcast the rolling news coverage. BBC Parliament cut to the News Channel coverage shortly after the initial announcement.

BBC Four programming has been suspended for the day.

CBBC and CBeebies schedules have continued as normal. However, lower-third announcements were overlaid shortly after the news broke, pointing viewers to a ‘Major News Report’ on BBC One.

On ITV, This Morning came to an end a little earlier than planned to make way for rolling news coverage from ITV News – presented initially by Lucrezia Millarini, and then Mary Nightingale, followed by Tom Bradby,

ITV’s schedule for much of the remainder of the day has been changed. ITV Racing moved to ITV 4.

The revised line-up on ITV:

12.15pm ITV News Special.

5pm Prince Philip: Duke of Edinburgh. James Mates presents a documentary looking back at the life of the Prince.

6pm Regional News.

6.30pm ITV Evening News.

7pm Prince Philip: Fondly Remembered. Julie Etchingham and Phillip Schofield present a live programme, remembering the Prince.

9pm Prince Philip: A Royal Life. ITV News Royal editor Chris Ship marks the most significant moments in the Prince’s life and examines how the son of a Danish Prince ended up marrying The Queen.

10pm ITV News at Ten.

11pm Regional News.

11.15pm Prince Philip: Duke of Edinburgh. James Mates presents a documentary looking back at the life of the Prince.

12.15am ITV Nightscreen. Replacing the planned Ideal World TV programme.

ITV 2 has been airing a special break bumper, pointing viewers to the ITV News coverage on ITV.

Channel 4 showed an extended Channel 4 News at lunchtime. Normal programming then resumed. At 4pm, a tribute programme was shown – His Royal Highness, The Duke of Edinburgh – replacing A New Life in the Sun. There’ll be an extended Channel 4 News at 7pm, running until 8.30pm.

S4C’s planned schedule was suspended shortly after 12.40pm, for a live news programme. Short tribute films were also shown, before live programming resumed.

Channel 5 has been showing royal documentaries since shortly after the news broke. An upper third graphic was left on screen for a few hours, reading “Buckingham Palace has announced that HRH The Duke of Edinburgh has died.”

A special 2-hour tribute programme produced by the 5 News team is being aired from 5pm.

At 7pm, The Gadget Show is being replaced by Gardening with Carol Klein. The normal Channel 5 programme schedule is due to resume at 8pm.

All UKTV channels suspended their respective ad breaks until the early evening and replaced commercials with a generic UKTV logo. A lower-third graphic was also displayed on each channel, pointing viewers to the BBC One news coverage – this ceased by early evening.

Shopping channels QVC, QVC Beauty, QVC Style, QVC Extra, Gems TV, Gemporia Craft, Jewellery Maker and TJC suspended their live output for a number of hours in tribute to Prince Philip. A static caption was shown instead.

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