Brexit Dramarama

If the aim of this is to sell the Brexit deal to the public, getting in the way of high profile TV shows the public have been enjoying and which are in all the TV guides seems about the worst way to do it.

Is there anything more embarrassing that politicians and political journalists discussing TV schedules? They all seem to be under the impression it's still the seventies.

Surely they won't do anything under the question time banner presented by anyone other than Dimbleby this close to his departure.

https://twitter.com/hendopolis/status/1068270443671498752
Politics journalists may be working over christmas (or more likely from the 2nd January instead of the 7th)

Just simulcast it. Would sort out the problem.

That could give ITV showing an under 2 million figure in the ratings.

Isn't the problem also how the broadcasters want to conduct the debate, not just where it'll be shown?

That is almost certainly one factor at play - as ITV were proposing a 1 on 1 (which obviously Corbyn would prefer) and the BBC were proposing a more panel-based approach I believe (which allows viewpoints other than May's and Corbyn's to be represented?)

Takes me back to the days of Harold Wilson who used to describe ITV as our channel.

Which is ironic considering Labour's stance against the launch of commercial television.

It was Wilson's government that also killed the immensely popular pirate radio ships of the mid 60s.
Bit of an ideological struggle there between free speech and commercial enterprise !

Hasn't all commercial TV and radio expansion (ITV, C4, Sky, BSB, C5, ILR) been under Conservative administrations?

Pretty much all of it, certainly in radio. IIRC the ILR roll-out got halted not long after the second 1974 GE, only to restart after 1979. The 1979-1997 administrations also oversaw national commercial stations, regional radio and the hyper-local licenses.

They also gave the commercial sector a gift from the Gods by putting just the right amount of pressure on the BBC to deliver Radio 1's Bannister revolution, which with the benefit of hindsight was also a lifeline for Radio 1. The commercials boomed because they did what needed doing to Radio 1 for a long time, but the BBC didn't have the joined-up thinking to revamp Radio 2 at the same time!