[UTVLifer]

What we've seen this year is just how much of the BBC's elections coverage these days relying on Huw Edwards himself and the energy that he brings to the long overnight shows - especially for the less exciting local elections which can be a slog. And Studio B looked amazing in election mode

As I said earlier, Laura was alright last night but she didn't have the gravitas that Huw brings to elections

[DTV]

The daytime coverage has been pretty poor really, basically a 5 hour debate between the host and a revolving set of guests, with the actual bulk of the results being mostly sidelined.

Coburn was definitely the best of the presenters they had, but I absolutely agree that it was a very poor decision to have the afternoon - which is now when the main slurry of results occur - to be 'discussion' in a second-rate studio, with actual results as an afterthought. To be fair, I guess they signposted it as a Politics Live Special, but I didn't expect them to actually mean it.

My broader disdain for the panel debate-ification of news programming aside, why do they have such an issue with understanding that what people want from election coverage is results and analysis. A bit of political reaction fine, but I heard the HQ scripted soundbites the first 300 times the talking heads said them, there's no need for them to be taking priority over the steady stream of results coming in or the criminally underused analysis teams and BBC correspondents/regional political editors. To their credit, it looks like (fingers crossed) we've seen the back of Vine's abysmal VR segments, but there's still so many simple ways they can make a better election night programme - they have all the right resources, they just use them in completely the wrong order.

[London Lite]

Presentation wise, the overnight edition from B worked well, although I didn't gel to Laura in the same way I've done with Huw or David Dimbleby.

It all started to go a bit Pete Tong when the election programme resumed on BBC Two. When it was actually on, no issue but then suddenly we'd get the World feed of BBC News until the TOTH and then returned again.

Then we got hours of Politics Live, which I find dreadful because of the over reliance of guests instead of proper parliamentary coverage. I have no issue with Jo Coburn presenting, but it should have been a standard election format rather than padding with guests.

[Andrew]

I agree about the extended Politics Live

You had a succession of Conservative MPs who all said the same thing, sat next to a succession of Labour MPs who said the same thing on their side, sat across from a left wing newspaper columnist or activist who all pretty much said the same thing, and then someone from a right wing organisation who also said the same thing - repeated hour after hour all day.

The main part of the results was banished to the newsroom with a badly angled screen with the actual results the smallest thing visible.

[bbctvtechop]

twitter.com 

Oooh, is that a News Channel (UK opt) display of the Red Bee HUD (aka Presfax) I spot?

[Transmission]

twitter.com 

Oooh, is that a News Channel (UK opt) display of the Red Bee HUD (aka Presfax) I spot?

That's the master (i.e. the base version the regions opt away from). UK is still coming from NBH at the moment.

[harshy]

Does the countdown originate from Red Bee or NBH?

[Frances]

Does the countdown originate from Red Bee or NBH?

Internationally it’s from Red Bee I think. They usually run the countdown till :00:00.
NBH runs it till :59:58 to make sure BBC One, Two and the international feed of the news channel has a clean opt-in.

[cando]

Laura in the early hours was far better than Huw imho. She gelled with the guests and knew what area she was talking about.

[Kojak]

I agree about the extended Politics Live

You had a succession of Conservative MPs who all said the same thing, sat next to a succession of Labour MPs who said the same thing on their side, sat across from a left wing newspaper columnist or activist who all pretty much said the same thing, and then someone from a right wing organisation who also said the same thing - repeated hour after hour all day.

The main part of the results was banished to the newsroom with a badly angled screen with the actual results the smallest thing visible.

What gets me are the (ex?) GB News people whom the BBC constantly book. Anyone would think they didn't have their own channel to pontificate on!