The Newsroom

Rules of PPB?

(April 2017)

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AS
AlexS
Austin Tatious posted:
Rkolsen posted:
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?


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 Wink 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.

I believe that the Ofcom rules say that there is meant to be more showings of the major parties broadcasts than the broadcasts of other qualifying parties. Who counts as a major party and qualifying party are both decided by Ofcom.
DV
dvboy
Markymark posted:


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


Channel 4 show them at 19:55, Channel 5 at 18:55. I'm not sure S4C show them anymore.

It's not necessarily the case that if the Labour Party have one in England, they have it in Wales, Scotland and NI the same day, although presumable C4 and C5 show the one going out on BBC One and ITV in England.

Here's the timetable for next week:

Mon 8 May
England: Conservative Party
Scotland: SNP
Wales: Welsh Labour
NI: DUU

Tue 9 May
England: Labour
Scotland: Scottish Labour
Wales: Welsh Conservatives
NI: Sinn Fein


Wed 10 May
England: Lib Dems
Scotland: Scottish Conservative and Unionist
Wales: UKIP
NI: UUP

Thu 11 May
England: UKIP
Scotland: Scottish Lib Dems
Wales: Plaid Cymru
NI: SDLP

Fri 12 May:
England: Green Party
Scotland: Scottish Green Party
Wales: Welsh Lib Dems
NI: Alliance
Last edited by dvboy on 1 May 2017 9:14pm
GE
thegeek Founding member
BBC Two used to have a 1755 slot too - though I suspect it went away with the demise of regional opts on Two.

(There were always occasions where there'd be local elections in England but not elsewhere - so the sustaining feed would have a PEB and Scotland, Wales and NI would each have to dust off a copy of Witness , but London gets its own PEBs for the Assembly/Mayoral elections, and there's just one BBC Two for England, so there'd be no way to broadcast the relevant broadcast.)
DV
dvboy
thegeek posted:
BBC Two used to have a 1755 slot too - though I suspect it went away with the demise of regional opts on Two.

(There were always occasions where there'd be local elections in England but not elsewhere - so the sustaining feed would have a PEB and Scotland, Wales and NI would each have to dust off a copy of Witness , but London gets its own PEBs for the Assembly/Mayoral elections, and there's just one BBC Two for England, so there'd be no way to broadcast the relevant broadcast.)


I remember the slot on BBC Two used to be a signed and/or subtitled version, and possibly at some point going out after Newsnight.

I can remember last year discussing London having its own PEB on BBC One while the rest of England had a different one, as someone queried here why the HD caption was being shown instead of the PEB.
IS
Inspector Sands
thegeek posted:
BBC Two used to have a 1755 slot too - though I suspect it went away with the demise of regional opts on Two.

(There were always occasions where there'd be local elections in England but not elsewhere - so the sustaining feed would have a PEB and Scotland, Wales and NI would each have to dust off a copy of Witness , but London gets its own PEBs for the Assembly/Mayoral elections, and there's just one BBC Two for England, so there'd be no way to broadcast the relevant broadcast.)

Last year/election, BBC Two were showing seperate PEBs for the 4 nations in the 17:55 slot but because BBC Two HD is UK-wide it had to blank them. They used their version of the caption that BBC One put up during the regional news
NT
Night Thoughts
This may be useful: http://www.broadcastersliaisongroup.org.uk/
BR
Brekkie
Have we now officially switched to General Election broadcasts are is Theresa hijacking the local PPBs?
AN
Andrew Founding member
Brekkie posted:
Have we now officially switched to General Election broadcasts are is Theresa hijacking the local PPBs?


Or alternatively they deserve praise as they've managed to deal with both elections in one broadcast, she did mention both dates clearly.

It makes sense as we are now in a strange situation where there are PEBs airing for a relatively minor election that half the country isn't voting in, during a period when all the news is about the general election but ignoring them as the broadcasts pre date the snap election being called.

Then you've got the Lib Dems that are still using the one they used as an adhoc Party Political Broadcast earlier in the year (or even at the back end of last year)

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