The Media Column: On election night who will win the battle of the airwaves?
An unpredictable election gives broadcasters’ pre-match skirmishes extra edge
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Your support makes all the difference.“Did you stay up for Danny Alexander?” The sight of a leading politician being delivered a public P45 by voters is traditionally one of the rewards for bleary-eyed viewers glued to the election night results into the early hours.
With Thursday set to deliver the most unpredictable outcome for a generation, broadcasters’ pre-match skirmishes have an extra edge.
Sky News has claimed an early victory with plans to air live results declarations from 270 of the 650 seats, compared with 220 on the BBC, and ITV’s 110. The BBC, which will wave farewell to David Dimbleby as its front-line election anchor following his 7am Friday sign-off, has upgraded its swingometer to take into account the rise of the SNP and Ukip.
Jeremy Vine will have four different swingometers to play with, imposed on to the clock face of a virtual Big Ben.
Viewers bored with the formal ballot counts and pointy-headed analysis coverage are being lured by Channel 4’s Alternative Election Night, presented by Jeremy Paxman alongside satirist David Mitchell. “It will proceed from an assumption that there are lots of things people do not like about the way our politics are working now,” said Paxman. Election night is as much about reputation for the broadcasters as ratings. The BBC’s 2010 coverage recorded a total reach of 17.7 million across all the corporation’s outlets.
But the abiding memory for many viewers was the Thames “boat party”, featuring interviews with boozy C-list celebrities, which interrupted BBC1’s main programme and will not be repeated this Thursday.
Tom Bradby will chair the ITV show, promising the “fastest results and the sharpest analysis” with guests ranging from Lord Mandelson to Brian May, the Queen guitarist. ITN will also provide the journalism for Channel 4’s alternative, which will morph from a comedy programme to a more sober results show, once the key counts begin declaring, from around 2am.
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Sky News viewers can either watch the main broadcast, anchored by Adam Boulton, with Kay Burley firing questions at David Cameron at his Witney count, or Election Newsroom Live, a Sky Arts programme which will give a behind-the-scenes glimpse of the high-pressure broadcast, using fixed-rig cameras.
The Sky News crews will be kitted with lightweight backpacks, allowing them to transmit live video from 270 declarations.
Thursday night will also be a “second screen” election, with viewers scouring Twitter and Facebook for news, such as rumours of a big name about to lose their seat, before they reach the broadcasters.
Google is dipping its toe into the “instant results” business. “On Election Day, if you use Google Now (which gleans summaries of information from various apps), you’ll get regular updates about the results as the votes are counted,” said Verity Harding, public policy manager at Google UK.
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