The ITC has conducted research in to the TV coverage of the general election and found that the majority of viewers thought that the coverage was fair, but there was too much of it.
By the end of the election period, viewers felt saturated with election information and 4 in 10 viewers avoided it and switched-off. Viewers wanted less general coverage, less negative campaigning and less dominance from the main leaders. In contrast, they wanted more involvement from women, and ordinary people, better explanation of policies and straight answers to questions.
During the election period, viewing of two main terrestrial channels’ flagship news programmes dropped-off, audiences for News At Ten were 7% lower than the same period in 1996 while the9 0’clock News sustained a 20% audience loss.
Party election broadcasts were found to attract higher audiences on ITV than on BBC1
ITC: 0171 306 7743
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