Wednesday 14 April 2010

British Election Coverage in the USA: the leaders' debates

I asked some questions last week about British General Election Coverage in America. After digging around a bit, I have a bit more now on the question of how expats will be able to access the first ever televised leaders' debates. As I predicted, C-SPAN are planning to air all three debates, but the bad news is that they are not airing them live, nor even on the same day. They have announced the following schedule:

Sunday April 18 on C-SPAN at 9 pm ET
Sunday April 25 on C-SPAN at 9 pm ET
Sunday May 2 on C-SPAN at 9 pm ET

So if you want to catch them live, it looks like it is going to be the internet or nothing. As it happens, I'll be at work and in meetings so I probably will only catch some of it online anyway. It's not yet completely clear to me whether international viewers will be able to watch the live stream of this one, but it looks like it is a possibility:

ITV: The First Election Debate, Thursday 15 April, 8.30pm

My guess is that the live stream will be available to international viewers, unlike content in the ITV Player. It is certainly the case that it will be available to international viewers after the event, via ITV1's Youtube Channel, since this is mentioned in their press release.

Meanwhile, on the podcasting front, the Guardian Election Daily Podcast and Radio 4's Vote Now Show are already daily essentials. What with all the Doctor Who podcasts to listen to at the moment, there are hardly enough travelling and houseworking hours in the day to keep up.

Update (Thursday): the first debate is to go out live on C-SPAN 3 -- details here.

5 comments:

Jeremy said...

Hey! I’m Jeremy and work for C-SPAN. I wanted to let you know that the first of these British debates, between Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Conservative Leader David Cameron and Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg, will be shown LIVE on C-SPAN3.

Here’s the link to our webpage on the 2010 British Elections, along with a link to our LIVE stream of C-SPAN3. Be sure to check the website in the coming weeks for information on further coverage of the debates.

Thanks!

Mark Goodacre said...

Many thanks, Jeremy. That's excellent news. I have updated this post and added a new post giving out this good news. I am looking forward to being able to watch.

Mike Parenti said...

This post has been very helpful. Thanks Mark!

Mark Goodacre said...

Thanks, Mike. Pleased it helped. I am planning to continue blogging over the next week and a half on the American coverage of the British election.

Mark Goodacre said...

Hi again, Jeremy. Do you know yet whether C-SPAN is planning to cover the UK election live on the evening of May 6? Might C-SPAN take the feed from the BBC or ITV or Sky, for example? Thanks! Mark.