Coronavirus | Television News Coverage

They'd stay up because they would know a statement dead on 10 was coming.

So a statement at 10pm is fine. The statement adds nothing new as he's done the presser and juiced the details for days. Nothing he's saying tomorrow becomes law at midnight so not an issue.

"I'll just stay up a little bit longer - Boris Johnson is on the TV later".

Said by nobody, ever.

Who the PM is makes no difference, its the PM, that's why they'd stay up. Not everyone scuttles off at 10pm straight to bed. There's around 6-7 million watching the combined news at tens anyway.

That article also says: "This will be followed by a Downing Street briefing in the evening."

So could it be a standard Downing Street press briefing at 7pm, but with the PM doing his address from the lectern first, as always? Seems strange to do a separate 'address' at 7pm and then also do a press briefing at say 8pm.

I doubt even BBC 1 would give it's 7 - 9pm programming over to the NC for this, when it'll all be revealed in Parliament at 3:30pm anyway.

No doubt Wales, Scotland & NI will also have to fit in their own bulletins straight afterwards, telling viewers to ignore everything they've just heard as it doesn't apply to them, especially on schools.

I suspect it is most likely guess work based on what has previously happened.

Exactly. My local newspaper tweets “Boris to address the nation about new Covid restrictions” every single week for clickbait as “address the nation” sounds more dramatic than “do a standard press conference like he does every week”

It remains to be seen what this one will turn out to be, it certainly wouldn’t be both, that would be ridiculous

By the way, do BBC North West and Granada do anything special for the benefit of the IoM (Where the Covid rules also differ)

Same question applies to BBC and ITV CI ?

I don't know. All I know is after every major announcement regarding lockdown tightening/easing for England by Boris Johnson, Wales Today has had to broadcast a bulletin immediately afterwards reminding viewers that everything they just heard only applies to England and that Wales has it's own, largely different rules, set by Welsh Govt. A major difference after tomorrow's announcement will obviously be on schools policy, so that will need immediate clarification for Scottish, Welsh & NI viewers.

The little that I've seen of ITV national news during the pandemic, devolution doesn't seem to be acknowledged at all, with English only Covid news being presented as UK wide Covid news

They run the occasional story about the Isle of Man, which looks weirdly normal when they show it on the telly, but they don't carry IoM government announcements or continually clarify that UK policy doesn't apply there.

Manx Radio is the state broadcaster of the Isle of Man and that has carried official announcements from their government throughout.

Are you for real?!

The whole point of having an announcement/conference/briefing/call it what you like is that it gets aired on BBC One in peak time hours in potential sight of the largest possible audience. 10pm is not peak time, unless you're on a pub crawl, and if you happen to be on a pub crawl then you probably shouldn't be on one anyway for obvious reasons.

Never mind the bulk of it is leaked/speculated/guessed in advance, its more of a from the horse's mouth thing. Nobody ever said "It's 10pm I should go to bed I have work tomorrow, I'll just stop up and watch Boris instead." Get real. If you want to see it at 10pm, be my guest, stream it on iPlayer and the rest of us will watch at a more sociable hour.

Theoretically if boris does a proper prime ministerial statement at 7pm tomorrow- the bbc will sacrifice would I lie to you from 830. Itv would sacrifice breaking dad, channel 4 May elongate their news, channel 5 will play with their timings as May sky 1. These thoughts are based upon the other lockdown addresses thus far and when and how they played on tv. Obviously in Scotland wales n.i etc there will also need be reminders that not much of it will apply there and to wait for similar statements from mr drake Ford ms sturgeon and ms foster with ms o neill

Breaking Dad finished last week so ITV won't need to sacrifice it.