British General Election Coverage in America?

With the General Election called this week for 6 May, I have begun to wonder what kind of coverage there will be for British expats in America.  It's my first British election since moving to America so I have no direct experience.  Of course we will continue to consume most of the election news via the internet, with the BBC Election 2010 and the Guardian Election 2010 websites the two places I will be visiting most often, all the more so this time with The Guardian promising a daily election podcast beginning next week.

But what about TV coverage here?  Election day itself will almost certainly be covered live on BBC America, though they don't have anything on their schedules yet.  Usually they will take the BBC1 feed on important occasions like this.  One of the interesting elements here is going to be the timeshift.  Since 1987, I have always been an all-nighter when it comes to General Elections, but here in North Carolina, I should be tuning in for David Dimbleby at around 5pm instead of 10.  In fact by 10pm here, we should have a good idea already about how things are shaping up.

There is one uncertainty at the moment and that is whether any of the American channels will take the leader debates, happening this year for the third time.  I've taken a look at the BBC America schedule for the first, next Thursday, but there is no sign of it there.  The best bet might be C-SPAN, which takes Prime Ministers' Questions live every Wednesday morning at 7am our time.  And this week, after the last of the PMQs for this parliament, they broadcast the previous evening's election special edition of Newsnight.  In fact, C-SPAN might be a good bet for live election coverage on May 6th too.

More notes and comments here when I have more.  And if you know more, please feel free to comment.