Major UK broadcasters clear schedules after the death of The Queen

By Neil Wilkes, Editor-in-chief | 08 September 2022

All five terrestrial channels in the UK switch to rolling coverage of the death of The Queen at the age of 96.

All five terrestrial channels in the UK have switched to rolling news coverage of the death of The Queen at the age of 96.

The longest-serving monarch in British history passed away at Balmoral this afternoon, Buckingham Palace confirmed in a statement issued at 6.30pm BST.

Both BBC One and ITV had already been broadcasting rolling news coverage for most of the afternoon following the news that The Queen had fallen ill and will now continue with news for the foreseeable future - at least into tomorrow.

Programmes such as EastEnders, Emmerdale, Celebrity MasterChef and Ambulance have all been postponed as a result.

BBC Two immediately switched to a simulcast of the BBC One coverage, while BBC Four - due to start at 7pm - broadcast an on-screen message reading: "Programmes on BBC Four have been suspended. Please switch to BBC One for a major news report."

BBC Three had a similar message, while the BBC Scotland, BBC Alba and BBC Parliament channels have all simulcast the main BBC News coverage.

Channel 4 and Channel 5 broke into regular programming with their own individual coverage, expected to continue for several hours. Programming on sister channels such as ITV2, E4 and 5USA appears to be continuing as normal.

Sky News's coverage of the news is being broadcast on Sky Sports News and Sky Showcase.

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