General Election Debates

Sorry if this has been posted elsewhere, but I think ITV's Leaders Debate will air on either Thursday 15 or Friday 16 April.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday or Thursday of that week, ITV will be broadcasting "Tonight" specials with each leader.

If the election is called next Tuesday as expected, the ITV Leaders' Debate will be Thursday 15th.

Will there be ads on ITV? Why is ITV bothering with these debates anyway, they don't provide any political coverage outside of the news bulletins. I don't even se the point of them holding such an extravagent election results programme.

ITV and Sky News will not be inserting commercial breaks into their debate coverage.

Apologies if this has already been posted but on the newly launched ITV HD website it says that the ITV debate will be filmed in HD

Last sentence on the page http://www.itv.com/itv1hd/questionsaboutitv1hd/

I assume Sky's will be in HD as they will have Sky News HD by then, will the BBC be broadcasting it in HD?

BBC and Sky's debates are being simulcast I believe, with Sky and BBC repeating the ITV debate after the fact. So I would assume, all 3 will be in HD.

I doubt these details have been officially sorted out yet, but I wonder if the debates will all carry similar graphics/music or have individual looks with branding appropriate to the channel.

From the debate rules:

68. Each broadcaster responsible for their own titles, music, branding etc.

Ah, right - thank you very much.

So, it's now all confirmed...

The First Election Debate
ITV1 on Thursday 15th April from 8.30pm to 10.00pm
First half of debate on domestic affairs
With Alistair Stewart in the North East
Nick Clegg to speak first
Viewers' questions can be sent to debate@itv.com

The Sky News Debate
Sky News on Thursday 22nd April from 8pm to 9.30pm
First half of debate on international affairs
With Adam Boulton in the South West
Gordon Brown to speak first
Viewers' questions can be sent at www.skynews.com/debatequestion

The Prime Ministerial Debate
BBC One on Thursday 29th April from 8.30pm to 10pm
First half of debate on the economy
With David Dimbleby in the Midlands
David Cameron to speak first
Viewers' questions can be sent at www.bbc.co.uk/election

Mark Thompson confirming the BBC will air all 3 debates. A quick glance at Radio Times suggests that the ITV debate will not be shown live. All could change in a matter of days...

I hope STV has a disclaimer pointing out that Most of the debate is about English only issues