June 2017 General Election TV Coverage

As ever, digital terrestrial TV coverage of the results of today's General Election varies from nation to nation across the UK, and the TV listings guides are often unclear or ambiguous about what's being shown where.

The BBC always does a good job of tailoring its election night coverage to the local audience, but it's rather strange that they don't even mention the dedicated programmes for viewers in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in their guide Election 2017 - How to follow on results night. They state "BBC One: The BBC's election night programme gets under way at 9.55pm on Thursday, 8 June. David Dimbleby is in the presenter's chair". True - if you live in England. If you're in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland, you have your own dedicated results programme on BBC1 and can watch Dimbleby and co on the BBC News channel (from 9.55) or join the coverage later on BBC2 from 11.15.

Here's a quick summary of what viewers in each UK nation can watch:


WALES

21:55 · BBC1 · Election 2017 Wales · with Bethan Rhys Roberts, Nick Servini, Felicity Evans and Arwyn Jones

21:55 · BBC News · Election 2017 (UK) · with David Dimbleby, Jeremy Vine, Emily Maitlis and Professor John Curtice

21:55 · S4C · Etholiad 2017 · with Dewi Llwyd

21:55 · ITV · Election 2017 Live: The Results · with Tom Bradby

21:55 · BBC Parliament · Election 2017 Scotland · with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor

23:15 · BBC2 · Election 2017 (UK) · (Joins BBC News coverage)

00:00 · Channel 4 (UK) · Alternative Election Night: The Results · with Jeremy Paxman


SCOTLAND

21:55 · BBC1 · Election 2017 Scotland · with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor

21:55 · BBC News · Election 2017 (UK) · with David Dimbleby, Jeremy Vine, Emily Maitlis and Professor John Curtice

21:55 · STV · Election 2017 (Scotland) · with Bernard Ponsonby

21:55 · STV2 · Election 2017 · Even STV's own website doesn't have any information about this, but my guess is that they will be showing the UK coverage with Tom Bradby

21:55 · BBC Parliament · Election 2017 Scotland · as BBC1

23:15 · BBC2 · Election 2017 (UK) · (Joins BBC News coverage)

00:00 · Channel 4  · Alternative Election Night: The Results · with Jeremy Paxman


ENGLAND

21:55 · BBC1· Election 2017 (UK) · with David Dimbleby, Jeremy Vine, Emily Maitlis and Professor John Curtice

21:55 · BBC News · As BBC1

21:55 · ITV · Election 2017 Live: The Results · with Tom Bradby

21:55 · BBC Parliament · Election 2017 Scotland · with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor

00:00 · Channel 4 (UK) · Alternative Election Night: The Results · with Jeremy Paxman


NORTHERN IRELAND

21:55 · BBC1 · Election 2017 - The Results (NI) · with Mark Carruthers and Tara Mills

21:55 · BBC News · Election 2017 (UK) · with David Dimbleby, Jeremy Vine, Emily Maitlis and Professor John Curtice

21:55 · UTV · Election 2017 Live: The Results · with Tom Bradby

21:55 · BBC Parliament · Election 2017 Scotland · with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor

23:15 · BBC2 · Election 2017 (UK) · (Joins BBC News coverage)

00:00 · Channel 4 (UK) · Alternative Election Night: The Results · with Jeremy Paxman



In all nations, if you fancy a bit of time-shifting, the ITV coverage will be shown an hour later on ITV+1.

May 2016 Elections TV Coverage

As usual, digital terrestrial TV coverage of this week's election varies from nation to nation across the UK. Here's a summary for those interested in following the results on Election Night.

Viewers in Wales have the widest choice of programming directly related to the election. The BBC's dedicated coverage of Welsh results is on BBC1 Wales from 10:30 (Election Wales 2016 with Bethan Rhys Roberts). The ITV Wales offering is Wales Decides with Adrian Masters, also from 10:30. S4C offers Welsh-language coverage from 10:00 (Etholiad Cymru 2016 gyda Dewi Llwyd, Vaughan Roderick a Bethan Lewis). The UK-wide coverage (Election 2016 with Huw Edwards from 11:45) is available on the BBC News channel. The BBC's dedicated coverage of Scottish results (Scottish Election 2016 with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor) can be seen on the BBC Parliament channel starting at 10:30. Question Time from Manchester is on BBC2 Wales at 10:45.

In Scotland the main coverage of Scottish results is offered by BBC1 Scotland's Scottish Election 2016 with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor from 10:30. STV's offering is Scotland Decides with Bernard Ponsonby, also from 10:30. The UK-wide coverage (Election 2016 with Huw Edwards from 11:45) is available on the BBC News channel and on BBC2 Scotland, immediately following Question Time from Manchester (from 10:45).

In Northern Ireland the UK-wide coverage (Election 2016 with Huw Edwards) is available on the BBC News channel from 11:45. BBC1 Northern Ireland joins the coverage at 12:25. Question Time from Manchester is on BBC1 Northern Ireland at 11:25, after The View (from 10:45) with Mark Carruthers. BBC2 Northern Ireland has Newsnight from 10:30. UTV has no dedicated election coverage. The BBC's dedicated coverage of Scottish results (Scottish Election 2016 with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor) can be seen on the BBC Parliament channel starting at 10:30.

In England BBC1 has Question Time from Manchester at 10:45 followed by Election 2016 with Huw Edwards from 11:45, which is also being shown on the BBC News channel. Newsnight is on BBC2 from 10:30. The BBC's dedicated coverage of Scottish results (Scottish Election 2016 with Glenn Campbell, Jackie Bird and Brian Taylor) can be seen on the BBC Parliament channel starting at 10:30. ITV has no coverage.

The listings provide contradictory information about whether BBC1 HD and BBC2 HD in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland are following the local schedule or the England schedule.

Here's a quick tablular guide:

	Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland	England
Etholiad Cymru 2016	S4C 10:00	—	—	—
Election Wales 2016	BBC1 10:30	—	—	—
Wales Decides	ITV1 10:30	—	—	—
Scottish Election 2016	BBC Parliament 10:30	BBC1 10:30	BBC Parliament 10:30	BBC Parliament 10:30
Scotland Decides	—	STV 10:30	—	—
Newsnight	?BBC2 HD 10:30	?BBC2 HD 10:30	BBC2 10:30	BBC2 10:30
Question Time	BBC2 10:45	BBC2 10:45	BBC1 11:25	BBC1 10:45
The View	—	—	BBC1 10:45 BBC1 NI from 12:25	—
Election 2016	BBC News 11:45	BBC2 Scotland 11:45	BBC News 11:45 BBC1 NI from 12:25	BBC1 11:45

So it appears that the UK-wide coverage and the coverage of the Scottish Parliament elections is viewable anywhere in the UK, whereas the coverage of the Senedd elections is available only to those actually living in Wales (though of course the UK-wide Election 2016 will be covering these results).

Welsh Assembly Elections Turnout

There has been some discussion of low turnout at the Welsh Assembly elections this time. This spreadsheet (via Google Docs) gives a breakdown of turnout by constituency.

To put the overall figures in context, here are the turnouts since the beginning of the Assembly in 1999:

1999: 46.3%
2003: 38.2%
2007: 43.7%
2011: 42.2%

This shows the turnout as slightly down on the average, but not by as much as some commentators in the media are suggesting. However, the low turnout as compared with UK General Elections (which themselves often see turnouts of fewer than two-thirds of the eligible electorate) remains a serious cause for concern. (The Scottish Parliament turnout was 52.3%.)

The Benefits of Digital Multi-Channel TV

For as long as I have been able to vote, I have stayed up on Election night with a pot of strong coffee to watch the results come trickling in via the TV coverage. (In 1992 I was so discombobulated by the result that I actually broke the coffee pot.)

Before the advent of digital TV this meant choosing between the BBC's usually excellent coverage and ITV's often more patchy offering. Last night's results programmes brought home to me one of the benefits of digital multi-channel TV (in my case via Freeview).

In Wales, BBC1 had Pembrokeshire's own Jamie Owen, who surpassed himself in keeping things running smoothly on a night when the first results were very slow to be announced. He was backed up by two of my favourite commentators on the Welsh political scene, Betsan Powys and Professor Laura McAllister, making BBC1 the channel I stayed tuned to for most of the night.

On BBC2 in Wales we had the UK-wide coverage presented by David Dimbleby. I flicked over to this occasionally and was impressed by the amount of coverage given to the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament elections. I'm a big fan of Dimbleby usually but didn't feel he was at his peak last night.

On S4C, presenter Dewi Llwyd, a mainstay of political and current affairs programmes (he hosts Pawb a'i Farn, the Welsh-language version of Question Time) did his usual excellent job of presenting the election results for Welsh speakers, but somehow almost every time I switched over to S4C they were in the middle of an advert break (I will rant on some other time about my views on the crassness of English-language advertising intruding in the middle of Welsh-language programming).

As a Scot living in Wales, however, I found that the icing on the cake was the BBC's creative use of its Parliament channel (Freeview 81) to show the Scottish election results programme, presented by Sally Magnusson. On an extraordinarily successful night for the SNP (and a poor one for Plaid Cymru) it was fascinating to compare the results as they came in from Scotland and Wales.

It was also interesting to compare the Welsh, Scottish and UK-wide programmes in terms of their coverage of other regions. BBC1 in Wales quite rightly concentrated on Welsh results, but flashed up interesting results from Scotland every now and then (very often these were SNP gains!). BBC1 in Scotland, on the other hand, didn't appear to be aware of local elections in England, and I don't think I heard Wales mentioned once. The Dimbleby programme concentrated initially on councils in England but gave reasonable coverage to Wales and Scotland, focussing especially on the latter when it became clear that the most interesting results were emerging from there.

Northern Ireland and North Wales constituencies, quite understandably, received little or no coverage as there were no overnight vote counts taking place there.

The winner for me was the BBC1 Wales programme, and I was sorry when it came to an end at 5 a.m., just too soon for the announcement of the result in my own constituency. When that came, however, I was sorry to see that my voting record remains unblemished: no candidate I have voted for has ever been elected...

Polling Day, Results Timetable, TV Coverage

The BBC news website has posted a useful timetable relating to today's vote and the estimated times at which we will learn the various results.
The AV result is not expected until 20:00 on Friday night. Results of the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament elections are expected to come in from about 02:30 on Friday.

• In England and Northern Ireland, BBC1 is showing its Vote 2011 coverage, hosted by David Dimbleby, from 23:35, following Question Time from London.
• In Wales, BBC1 is showing Election 2011 - The Results from 22:35, presented by Jamie Owen with commentary by Betsan Powys and others. The UK-wide Vote 2011 programme will be shown from 23:35 on BBC2. S4C's Etholiad 2011, presented by Dewi Llwyd, starts at 22:00.
• In Scotland, Sally Magnusson presents the Scottish Election results on BBC1 from 23:45 and BBC2 joins Vote 2011 from 00:20.
• ITV appear to have no dedicated election coverage.

First (past the) post

Photo © nickj365

Voters across the UK go to the polls today to vote in a referendum on the future of the system by which MPs are elected to the UK Parliament. At the same time, voters in Wales will elect Members of the Welsh Assembly Government; those in Scotland will choose their representatives in the Scottish Parliament; there are local elections in 279 local authorities in England; and in Northern Ireland there are elections for the Northern Ireland Assembly and local elections (the BBC news website has a full list).

The election which has attracted most attention in the media is the UK-wide referendum on electoral reform, where we are being asked to choose between 'First Past the Post' (the existing system) and a new (to us) system known as Alternative Vote (AV), which (at least in theory) is a better representation of the intentions of voters. Despite a series of informational leaflets issued by the Electoral Commission, there is still widespread lack of knowledge of the Alternative Vote system, not helped by the scaremongering tactics of some supporters of the 'No' campaign.

Here are some annotated links to resources of interest, some factual, some entertaining. 

• Johann Hari: If you get the X Factor you'll get AV
  Independent columnist Johann Hari uses an analogy with The X-Factor to criticise the claims of some in the 'No' camp that AV is too complicated. Well written and entertaining - I particularly enjoyed the bit about the Mars bar and the Twix!
  
• Electoral Reform Society: Overview of AV and of other voting systems
  Useful if, like me, you haven't got your head round AV and why it is better/worse than other options. Also helpful if you live in one of the devolved nations and have one system for your local assembly/parliament, another for Westminster elections and today are voting on replacing that with a third system! (The Welsh Assembly, the Scottish Parliament and the Greater London Assembly, as well as the German Bundestag, use AMS (Additional Member System, also known as Mixed Member Proportional); the Northern Ireland Assembly uses STV (Single Transferable Vote).
  
• BBC News guide to AV
  Includes yet another graphic showing what happens under AV until one candidate gets 50% or more of the vote. Also includes a useful guide to where the parties stand on AV.
  
• The Guardian guide to AV
  Lots of information, including an 'interactive guide', who supports which side, and the latest news.
  
• Young Voters' Question Time (via BBC iPlayer, till 10 May)
  Version of Question Time for young voters. The second half is dedicated to a discussion of the AV referendum. Chair Richard Bacon seems to have difficulty in remaining impartial, and at times struggles to manage the panellists. Overall a slightly disappointing programme with some enlightening and entertaining moments.
  
• Stephen Fry on why you should vote Yes
  Fry articulate as ever and backed up by some fancy graphics, though unfortunately coming across as slightly patronising in this one.
  
• Let's AV a Beer
  FPTP gives you coffee when 70% of you would rather go down the pub.
  
• Is your cat confused about the referendum on 5th May?
  Entertaining YouTube video explaining AV in terms of "cat" and "dog" votes.