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).