On Saturday morning, Studio B in Belfast was the base for the BBC’s TV coverage of the local elections in Northern Ireland, with Mark Carruthers anchoring.
There were live link-ups with reporters and politicians at the various count centres across Northern Ireland. Studio presentation included the use of a green-screen area for results graphics.
The large video wall in Studio B displayed imagery of the multi-coloured hexagon device, also used by the BBC for national elections and coverage of local elections in other parts of the UK.
Lower-thirds were a simpler strain of those used for the recent coverage of local elections in England.
BBC Northern Ireland’s TV coverage was reduced to a three-hour slot on Saturday morning, due to industrial action by members of the National Union of Journalists.
Planned coverage on TV and radio on Friday was blacked out by the strike action.
In UTV land, a more basic graphical/presentation offering by comparison. The local station utilised the UTV Live set, with the addition of Vote 23 imagery on the screens at the back of the set.
On the graphics front, we had a simple lower-third scorecard and a full-screen State of the Parties graphic. We didn’t spot any council-specific graphics.
Outside of UTV Live programmes, election coverage was confined to a two-hour slot – 4pm – 6pm – on Friday.
The coverage included live reporting by UTV reporters at the local count centres and interviews with politicians. And there was in-studio analysis from various political commentators.
Acknowledgements
PICTURED: BBC Northern Ireland local election graphics. Presenter: Mark Simpson. COPYRIGHT: BBC.
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