This is not a morbid question so lets have mature responses.
When the Queen finally dies its natural to assume or presume that the likes of BBC, ITV etc will show serious sombre programmes during the period of mourning.
But what about the likes of Netflix etc? Will they follow suit or try and provide some kind of relief?
I’d suspect streaming services like Netflix as it’s not “Live TV” will continue as usual and may just put out extra documentaries to be watched if they have any access to any. In this digital age I suspect we will see the main channels with news going wall to wall news and channels that don’t show news e.g. Quest may just show somber programmes
I'm guessing if said event did occur, people would not be looking to Netflix for sombre programming as that would be covered by the live channels (BBC, ITV etc.). So even if it is just acknowledgement, Netflix would still suggest the viewing of a wide range of films and programmes.
I suspect Netflix would see a spike in viewing of The Crown in the immediate aftermath. Ultimately though it's a different media to live broadcast television - although would be interesting to know if they technically could effectively interupt anything being streamed with a "newsflash" of sorts.
As Netflix isn't live TV and people choose what they want when they want, I doubt they will do anything.
There are plenty of people out there who couldn't give a toss about the Royal family and will be moaning when one of them dies because their normal TV viewing schedule has been changed to blanket coverage of a death. In fact, in those cases, Netflix will be a welcome alternative. They may acknowledge it on social media or introduce a special "Royal" themed section for the weeks after the death is announced, but that would be all, if they even did that.
Netflix (and Amazon Prime and whatever else) will not cease to work, I dare say they will experience a surge in popularity after "Day 7: Queen is still dead" on the main networks. Maybe the odd themed strand or occasional Queen documentary from an international source but they're not going to take down Stranger Things or whatever.
Surely, as with other home media such as DVD or Blu-ray, streaming services would remain unaffected other than perhaps promoting monarchy related programming.
As the BBC, ITV, C4, C5 etc are public service broadcasters they will obviously come under more scrutiny for accurately or indeed not so accurately reading the public mood with their scheduling.
These threads pop up every few months, and are always met with the same responses
- Someone suggests a ridiculously overblown suggestion of what will happen, wall to wall news on every channel for a week
- Someone suggests something more realistic
- Someone says they expect no more coverage than 'Old lady dies' at the end of a regular bulletin
I would imagine to satisfy potential critics, a feed of a news provider would appear in the mix of available programming, on the streaming platforms, pretty quickly after the metaphorical balloon went up. Whether it was viewed or not would be at the discretion of the subscriber.
I imagine that a lot of the services will stay as they are. They may remove content temporarily that could be seen as disrespectful under the circumastances i.e anything that may mock the royal family or show a royal death etc.
Other than that, the most I could see them do is maybe turn their logos black and loose any opening sfx (Netflix noise when logging in). At the end of the day they are in a prime position to offer a range of entertainment that the likes of BBC et al won’t be able to. They will probably see a surge in viewers / subscriptions over the period.
The thing is that if you compare what other Satellite channels did when Diana died or the Queen Mother died, they did nothing.
Other than the odd channel displaying a strap announcing the news and maybe a tribute caption, schedules did not change unless the odd programme was deemed inappropriate to broadcast.
Therefore unless the channel or streaming service has a news obligation (which most of them don't) then I wouldn't expect much to be very different.
I suspect Netflix will tweak their algorithm towards some Royal related programming on the homepage, but other than that it's On Demand, people choose what they want to watch. It's not a PSB.