According to MediaGuardian, BBC's Election Night coverage is likely to kick off at 10pm at night at the conclusion of voting, only to continue through until the afternoon of the next day: non-stop.
This is due to cost-cutting exercises by some councils up and down the country who want to count votes during sociable hours, in order to prevent paying overtime to staff.
Bad news for David Dimbleby of all people, who is having to face the prospect of presenting overnight and through to the next day!
Had the reason for next day counts explained to me today as I am likely to apply for a part time election official at the time of the next poll. The law now insists on the full validation of postal votes before starting on the count proper, All of Cornwall will now start counting at 0830 on the Friday, as it's expected that the validation of postal votes will take well into the early hours of Friday morning.
It's going to be chaos around 1200 - 1400 though as there'll be an avalanche of results from prevalidated ballots which will start to be counted at 0830.
If necessary
activities around the transfer of administration will be delayed until mid afternoon.
One feature of Cornwall's count that I expect to see repeated elsewhere is the use of multiple constituency counts, already common in urban areas, being extended into rural Britain. The six Cornish constituencies will be counted in just two centres, Pool - Redruth and Dobwalls - Liskeard next year. this should help broadcasters with their coverage though.
Besides, by the time the network Election programmes usually end, there are still seats to declare, like the NI seats.
I doubt network BBC/ITV would stick out for longer myself - remaining declarations might get coverage on the news channels, especially if they are of little significance to the final results. Only if there was a situation such as a hung parliament that went down to the last handful of seats would I imagine coverage extended beyond its usual length.
It's worth noting that, although significant, the amount of seats not counting until Friday is in the minority and the large proportion of councils will still choose to count overnight so results and analysis will still be available. But it does raise the possibility that rather than the true picture being known by dawn that we'll have to wait until later on Friday to confirm the exact result, unless an early landslide is apparent.
Besides, it wouldn't be the same without seeing them running about like idiots at Sunderland South!