Northern Ireland Political Crisis

Once again politics here has been plunged into crisis, with the Deputy First Minister resigning, collapsing the institutions and almost certainly triggering an Assembly Election in the next two months - and quite possibly more political turmoil after the election.

For UTV, this will be the first election under ITV's supervision. It'll be interesting to see if they provide the same extensive coverage as in previous elections - including the open-ended results coverage.

Today's announcement was rather unexpected and showed up UTV's lack of depth in news personnel - Marc Mallet would normally anchor from Stormont for big political stories but he was covering for Paul Clark in the studio with Rose Neill tonight. Nevertheless they stuck with the usual formula of anchoring the political coverage from Stormont, leaving it to general news/business reporter Vicki Hawthorne who UK viewers may remember from her stints with GMTV and Sky News a few years back.

Round the corner on Ormeau Avenue, BBC Newsline is extended through to 7.30pm with Donna Traynor in the studio and Tara Mills in the studio.

No The View, Nolan or View from Stormont scheduled for this week, but I'd be surprised if at least one of them doesn't appear.

Would be interested to know how BBC NI and UTV budget for these unexpected elections. Is there extra money made available from the coffers in London, or do they have to make their existing budgets stretch.

I was hoping someone would start a thread.

I thought this kind of thing happened quite often with the NI Assembly and usually results in bargaining between parties rather than triggering an election.

The difference this time is that the Deputy First Minister has resigned and his party (Sinn Fein) will not nominate a replacement - and because the First Minister & Deputy First Minister share a joint office as per our cross-community power sharing arrangements, if one or the other resign it brings the whole thing crashing down.

We've been on the verge of collapse on numerous occasions over recent years, generally regarding Troubles-legacy issues. This crisis is (supposedly) on a domestic financial issue and has unexpectedly escalated pretty quickly, which may have caught the broadcasters on the hop. Even before Christmas I wouldn't have thought they were gearing up for an election campaign.

Oddly BBC Newsline was only extended until 7.10pm, with the 20 minutes filled by Barra Best's Weather Watchers.

Another extended Newsline at 10.30pm.

There has been many threats over the years to collapse the institutions since the DUP/Sinn Fein alliance started in 2007 but last time a full collapse happened was under the UUP/SDLP administration with David Trimble & Mark Durkan in 2002.

Gareth said about all the scandals but they always seemed to come short of collapse but this time Sinn Fein wanted Arlene Foster to step aside like Peter Robinson did previously when their name got connected to a scandal until her name was cleared but she didn't and now it has collapsed and as Gareth said if one party goes the whole thing comes crashing down. This election could be more important than any others in recent years as the Assembly reduces from 108 to 90 MLAs and may have some big changes with Martin McGuinness looking likely to retire and will they still have stalemate after this election.

Therefore BBC NI & UTV now have to prepare for an election in 8-10 weeks and some 10 months after the last election. Some questions exist such as will ITV want to do a debate like UTV did previously and will they have coverage for a whole afternoon on UTV.

Alas ITV are going to have to broadcast a few hours of election coverage, this is the sort of thing that will get them into trouble. Plus there rubbing the hands to its cheap to make and fews up hours of content to fill its quoter. coming soon more UTV specials at 8pm

Remarkable share. Well done UTV Live! https://t.co/zy3Oo8bDUv

— Carl Dinnen (@carldinnen) January 10, 2017

51% share for UTV Live at 6 last night.

BBC Newsline actually aired from 6.30pm to 7.12pm last night and then a filler programme was added to bring it back to schedule at 7.30.

UTV Live's coverage was very good, and although I'm a BBC stalwart at heart, the Newsline coverage wasn't that great. Loads of on-air references to "more is available on the BBC News NI website".

The local programme on UTV tonight at 7.30pm may be altered to a special about the drama going on up the road.

Most people I have spoken to about it here aren't too fussed about what's happened. Yes, a snap election will be called by Sinn Féin and Arlene Foster (FM) is likely to lose her seat, but it's the other departments of the Assembly that are going to lose out.

Yes, £500m of taxpayers money has been lost on the heating incentive, and that's going to come from somewhere so other incentives that the NIA have granted for the past few years (boiler replacement scheme, Translink funding, HSC funding etc) are likely to be reduced.

Will be interesting to see how this plays out on BBC Newsline, UTV Live and RTÉ News - there was a small bit on last night but not a lot! Euronews at 4.45am did mention it briefly.

RTE had a report and a live from Tommie Gorman - who interestingly became the first Irish/NI reporter to reveal an indication of the nature Martin McGuinness's illness.

Meanwhile the big guns have arrived in Belfast. Well, Ben Brown, at least. Reporting from Stormont for the News Channel.

Certainly big ratings for UTV Live last night. I'm always curious and mildly surprised at how, despite the BBC's massive strength in depth in personnel and resources, and their investigative journalism (it was Spotlight and Nolan's reporting which triggered this political crisis), the viewers just don't take to BBC Newsline in the same way as they take to UTV Live.

BBC Newsline has, IMO, lost its edge. It's become somewhat of a clone of the BBC's other regions/nations 6.30 shows. Newsline, and its predecessors, use to have the feeling of a proper national news programme, doing proper, serious news. These days they often seem to be merely going through the motions. Of course, its a very good thing that the content of the news has changed over recent years. But its not the flagship programme it once was.

I think it certainly suffered from the decision to go to a single-headed presenter. After Noel Thompson and Mark Carruthers left, there was a period when every Tom, Richard and Harry were presenting solo before things settled with Donna Traynor or Tara Mills on most nights. But they don't capture the public like the UTV's 'cosy' set-up with recognisable faces like Paul, Rose and Frank - broadcasters who between them have surely been around for at least 200 years. And that's despite UTV's news service being a small, small shadow of its former self.

The debates at Stormond today were on BBC Parliament this morning and now on the Red Button on BBC Parliament (Sky channel 980).

is there any extended NI news tonight? will UTV have a special programme at 8pm?

Doubt UTV will have anything at 8pm when View from Stormont is already scheduled for 10.40-11.45pm.

Extended BBC Newsline at both 6.30pm and 10.30pm.

Annita McVeigh has been anchoring from Stormont for the News Channel today.