Rules of PPB?

Dare I say it... They'd get the vote of a certain Mr C. Williams with that broadcast.

I can't remember where the reasons for that failure were discussed, in here, or elsewhere, but the problem was
that the playout VTR was assigned to an edit suite, and no matter how the operator (sat in front of it) attempted to switch it to 'local' control, the edit suite (elsewhere in the building) kept randomly grabbing control.

There aren't any PEBs scheduled on Wednesday 3 May this year, and there weren't any on Wednesday 6 May 2015 (at least on BBC One), looks like they have a day spare in which to reschedule them if needed.

I'd like to think that was a deliberate act of sabotage by liberal/left-leaning people at the station!

Yes, a while back I posted a link to a radio interview with the former Thames tape operator involved (I say that as he tells a story about a PEB going wrong which matches the one in the video). Yes, they were short on VT machines that night because of sport (presumably Midweek Sport Special) so it wasn't in the normal area. However they'd rehearsed the playout of the tape in the afternoon with no problems.

However what no-one had realised was that the machine was connected as part of an edit suite which was in use that evening. So he pressed play but the edit controller stopped the tape. Every time he tried again the same happened.

I'll try and find the link when I'm back on a computer


That was the spin put on it by the Morning Star newspaper the next day, but it was an accident

the old thread is here: https://tvforum.uk/forums/post1033676#post-1033676

How are these broadcasts scheduled? Does the broadcaster fit in one party where they can or do they set aside a block and air them back to back?

Back in the dim and distant past you would NEVER have any PPB/PEB on the eve of ANY Poll. Historically when we had simulcast broadcasts the Opposition Party would have their final broadcast on the Monday evening, and the incumbent Governing party the final campaign one on the Tuesday. I suspect the gap on Wednesday of this week relates back to that practice.

The same one (if it's intended for national consumption) is shown by BBC 1, 2 and ITV the same evening.
They used to all be simulcast at 21:00hrs, but since the early 80s they are normally shown just before or just after the main news programme on each channel. BBC 1 choose to show theirs after the regional news at 18:55.

Regional (i.e Wales, Scotland, and NI) PPBs are shown locally on BBC 1, 2, and ITV, sometimes replacing
national versions that get seen in England.

I've lost track what happens on C4, C5 and S4C ?

And ITV a show theirs at 18:25 between the regional and national news

During the weeks leading up to any kind of vote/election (local, national, a referendum, or whatever), several major UK broadcasters will set aside short slots for these political broadcasts to be shown one at a time. An example of how it works...

The main weekday evening regional news programmes on BBC One and ITV(1)/STV/UTV will be about 5-minutes shorter than usual (i.e. 25-minutes rather than 30-minutes), starting at their usual air time but finishing early. Typically only on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (I think?) over the course of the few relevant weeks.

In any one such slot, a single PPB for a single party or campaign will be shown. So, for example, we might get Labour's one on the Monday, Conservative on the Wednesday, and Liberal Democrats on the Friday this week; and then... say... Green Party, UKIP, and The "Standing-at-the-back-dressed-stupidly-and-looking-stupid" Party's one on Mon/Wed/Fri next week. And so on.

Over the course of the few weeks, each party that has produced such a broadcast will get its one shown at least once. The aim is presumably to provide an equal number of showings of each party's/campaign's broadcasts (transmission faults not withstanding) to avoid accusations of bias.

They are definately also shown on Tuesday's as well as ITV regional news is already a couple of minutes shorter on Tuesdays, add in the PEB and it's not much over 20 mins long