NG
That's a pretty low number for a nation of more than 60 million, isn't it? In the US, the second Obama-McCain debate in 2008 got an audience of 63.2 million viewers (in a nation of 307 million) -- although it was carried on all the major networks.
And in France, whose population is similar to that of the UK, the 2007 presidential debate got an audience of 20 million.
But even considering that not all viewers were able to watch yesterday's debate live, I would have expected a higher figure given all the publicity -- the event even received prominent coverage here in Slovenia.
A digital channel was never going to get 10million for a debate like this. It could have quite easily been shown live on BBC Two, instead of a repeat at night.
Suggestions that the BBC wanted to avoid this - as if they had given it a large BBC audience they would have had to have given more air time to minority parties on a pro-rata basis (BNP in particular). By showing it at a time where it would get a much smaller audience on a mainstream channel, and on digital-only channels live, they reduced the potential audience on their outlets, and thus avoided the requirement to give more air time to minority parties for the sake of balance. (The BBC have strict guidelines about giving balanced air time - presumably the reason the News Channel followed the debate instantly with interviews with the SNP and Plaid Cymru?)
noggin
Founding member
Last night's got 4 million viewers between Sky News, Sky 3 and the BBC
That's a pretty low number for a nation of more than 60 million, isn't it? In the US, the second Obama-McCain debate in 2008 got an audience of 63.2 million viewers (in a nation of 307 million) -- although it was carried on all the major networks.
And in France, whose population is similar to that of the UK, the 2007 presidential debate got an audience of 20 million.
But even considering that not all viewers were able to watch yesterday's debate live, I would have expected a higher figure given all the publicity -- the event even received prominent coverage here in Slovenia.
A digital channel was never going to get 10million for a debate like this. It could have quite easily been shown live on BBC Two, instead of a repeat at night.
Suggestions that the BBC wanted to avoid this - as if they had given it a large BBC audience they would have had to have given more air time to minority parties on a pro-rata basis (BNP in particular). By showing it at a time where it would get a much smaller audience on a mainstream channel, and on digital-only channels live, they reduced the potential audience on their outlets, and thus avoided the requirement to give more air time to minority parties for the sake of balance. (The BBC have strict guidelines about giving balanced air time - presumably the reason the News Channel followed the debate instantly with interviews with the SNP and Plaid Cymru?)
