UK General Election

On the rule allowing a broadcaster to "empty chair" a candidate/party who has been given an opportunity to participate but declines, what happens if one candidate will only agree to take part if certain conditions are met such as pre-agreed questions?

Can the broadcaster simply say that the candidate was invited and declined to take part in the programme even though they were prepared to take part on their own terms?

Considering a key part of the debate is that the questions are not pre-agreed, I would take that as a decline to appear, full stop.

Someones having a lot of fun in the Sky offices, just tweeted even more sim cards

Friends reunited... pic.twitter.com/nStldS9gub

— Sky News Tech Team (@NewsTech) May 10, 2017

BBC is making the news today:

This BBC cameraman has just had his leg ran over by the car Jeremy Corbyn arrived in at Labour's manifesto signing. #GE2017 @5_News pic.twitter.com/oQCKEjubzW

— Matt Spencer (@Matt5News) May 11, 2017

The cameraman seems to be in good spirits. He's currently in hospital getting treated.

The news viewer in me wonders who took the footage of the cameraman having his foot run over? Another BBC cameraperson or a friendly competitor.




I wonder how many of the SIM cards go missing? Hopefully they have them all catalogued and locked in a safe. I think I heard them mention that each card had a set amount of data. Wonder how purchasing a SIM card with a set amount of data costs vs getting one SIM with a short term plan.

I still think its ironic that SKY are having to use their biggest competitors mobile network.

It's not really - if you've ever worked with cellular bonding or any kind of video transmission over 4G, you'd realise that having the right network makes all the difference.

What works in one location may not be the best elsewhere.

Sky Mobile piggy backs onto o2 which doesn't have the wider range for 4g that Vodafone or EE do, apparently, which is probably why they've got a ton of Sims for EE. o2 might be better in some towns and cities but realistically no mobile network can guarantee 100% coverage - it often only needs a tree blowing the wrong way to block network access.

We've found EE and O2 will give you the best signal if you're in a static location and not moving about, but o2 doesn't have widest 4G coverage geographically.

Three? Just forget it. Plagued by issues not just getting a signal, but keeping a constant speed where it won't fluctuate to near uselessness... but that's not to say one count centre could be right beside a mast, in which case you're in luck. I'd say Sky have been smart and if they're doing count centres on single sim cards, are looking at locations and nearest masts before deciding what goes where.

These days with a decent IP encoder, you can get away with a 5Mbs connection via IP and just throw in a BT Infinity line for a year for around £300. With the right kit at both ends, you get talkback / clean feed down the same lines... and if there's spare capacity, also use it for Radio with Luci Live.

How many times are people going to spend 10 posts talking about SIM cards and the fact they aren't Sky's own!

They should be able get away with a 30GB fixed data sim which isn't too expensive. Worst case the stream would be for 12 hours on results day at around 5Mb/s.

As said, it'll be a non consumer corporate deal, probably no actual cap, just an agreed usage rate, (and possibly a prioritised network service)