UK General Election

Local election coverage though would have already been planned and scheduled before the general election was announced. With just two weeks notice they're not going to be able to scale it up to be a rehearsal for the general election - indeed arguably with such short notice to the general election attentions may have been diverted towards that.


P.S. I think this was touched upon earlier in the thread but given the local election poll falls in the lead up to the general election do any rules apply on polling day that would prevent extensive coverage being given to any campaigning by the leaders in relation to the general election.

BBC Parliament seem happy to schedule a normal day of campaigning highlights on Thursday.

Worth noting that the PEBs for the general election start on Monday 8 May.

It seems from Monday it will be on three times a day, are't we lucky,

The Local/Mayoral ones don't get shown on Channel 4, possibly because it's not regional whereas on the BBC and ITV they can get round that by just having normal length regional news in areas they aren't being shown in.

C4 is still regional in advertising terms - but I expect the granularity isn't small enough. They used to operate LEMNUS (London, East and South, Midlands, North, Ulster, Scotland) areas ISTR.

However the HD (and I think +1) services don't follow this - so I suspect it is too complex (and may be difficult to implement securely)

Here's a quote from a thread https://tvforum.uk/forums/post1013182#post-1013182 about LEMNUS

This is why C4SD is on 104 on HD Sky boxes, not C4HD (as there are still regional variations on SD that aren't matched in HD) - so as per Ofcom rules, the SD version is on 104. (Ignoring Wales where S4C may muddle EPG numbering)

C5 used to distribute multiple versions of their channel, though not on a regional basis (the feeds could be customised I believe) but stopped around the time C5HD went FTA on DSat. As a result C5HD is now on 105 on HD Sky boxes (as the HD and SD versions supplied are equally regional, so the HD version can have the primary EPG slot on HD boxes)

Just after the last election, there was quite a long post on here about some sort of meeting the different broadcasters had to discuss their coverage. Does anybody remember who posted it?

(I'm thinking it could have been Skygeek, or I could just be going mad!)

That's actually a very good question. Parliament gets dissolved on Wednesday, meaning it will be formally GE campaign mode by LE day on Thursday, so I presume yes?

I think it is just polling day when polls, ironically, are forbidden from 6am to 10pm. Meanwhile during all campaign coverage there must be fair coverage of all the parties or candidates. For example, at the end of a report which may focus on Paul Nuttall standing in Boston it will probably say 'here's a list of all the candidates for that particular seat'.

So, my understanding is that polls are allowed apart from on the day we vote so it doesn't give tactical voting or whatever.

Well the difference is this year OFCOM have got rid of "major parties". Rather than the regulator dictating, the broadcast has to determine what is fair, appropriate and of course impartial coverage of the General Election.

I bet yorkshire, Anglia and meridian south east would be more likely to broadcast ukip ppb, while med south and htv would be greens?

Do I have this wrong?

Yes for many reasons, the main one being because that wouldn't be impartial

All political discussion and analysis relevant to the election is banned once the polls are open, so that only purely factual statements, such as the fact the polls are open and such and such turned up to vote can be said on TV / Radio. For local elections presumably items of purely national interest may be mentioned, but that may be tricky. The final general election poll is usually MORI in the Evening Standard published on polling day, so gets no broadcast coverage.