The results of UK general elections are always eagerly anticipated and can make for compelling television. Kevin Hilton talks to the BBCs head of media operations, Morwen Williams, about how such an involved broadcast is put together and the technologies being used to get those all important declarations on air
By Contributor
Published: July 4, 2024 Updated: July 5, 2024
The results of UK general elections are always eagerly anticipated and can make for compelling television. Kevin Hilton talks to the BBC's head of media operations, Morwen Williams, about how such an involved broadcast is put together and the technologies being used to get those all important declarations on air
target=_blank title=Share on LinkedIn class=share-linkedin> The results of UK general elections are always eagerly anticipated and can make for compelling television. Kevin Hilton talks to the BBC's head of media operations, Morwen Williams, about how such an involved broadcast is put together and the technologies being used to get those all important declarations on air
https://www.tvbeurope.com/features/election-night-connections-how-ip-bonded-cellular-and-satellite-will-be-in-play-for-the-bbcs-election-2024 title=Share via Email class=share-email>
Elections are major broadcast events in the UK, both for the viewing and listening audiences they draw in and the sheer logistics involved in covering the build-up and polling day itself, While there is now considerable focus on the debates between party leaders although British TV did not stage its first until 2010 along with gauging the mood of the nation by talking to potential voters in key constituencies, the real focus will be on election night after the polls close and the vote count begins.
For this year's election, the BBC is aiming to cover as many of the 650 parliamentary seats as possible, or at least have a presence at the ones most under scrutiny. We have an ambition to be at an awful lot of those, if not every one, in vision, comments Morwen Williams, head of BBC media operations. If not, we will definitely have someone editorially at every one. We are trying to get a significant amount of extra cameras out and that will range from mobile phones to full OB trucks.
BBC TV's first live broadcast of election results was in 1950, since then the coverage has grown considerably, with increasing numbers of live declarations from constituencies and ever more analysis in the studio of what they mean for the country. The obvious example of the latter is the Swingometer, a graphical representation of the shift in voting for the main parties. During the late 1960s and through the '70s this was presided over by Canadian politics professor and statistical analyst Robert McKenzie; a virtual version, with a background of the House of Commons chamber, is now in the charge of Jeremy Vine.
Morwen Williams Over the last ten years, the UK has had three general elections (2015, 2017 and 2019). Williams says incremental developments have been made in the technology used to get the results from the constituencies on air during this time. There's been a significant change since 2015 and some change since 2019, she comments. The big technical one has been in connectivity from the different locations. The places where the counts are held and announced are leisure centres and town halls, which all have good Wi-Fi these days. We can tap into that with a cellular bonded backpack and we'll be doing that at quite a number of places using different products because we know it will be rock solid with no contested bandwidth.
This year's election was called for 4th July, a snap announcement that set the date much earlier than many political commentators predicted. But in terms of the broadcast coverage, preparations were already underway before the date was known. It would have been too late to start planning things when the election was called, explains Williams. We knew there had to be an election this year and knowing that our preparations have been going on [for some time]. Originally the thinking was that it would be an autumn or November election and I'd been involved in talks about the debates and potential locations for them. You can't do something as complex as a presenter plus seven leaders being interviewed from scratch. Discussions about what we might want these to look and feel like started months ago.
The same pre-planning applied to covering the declarations of results on election night, whenever it should happen to be. It doesn't even matter when the election is, Williams says. As soon as it's announced that the count for a particular seat will be at a certain location, you try to see if it's a known place, whether we've broadcast from there before and can our colleagues who work or live nearby go and look at it for us? If not and it's a big one, we have to go and recce. You take decisions like that throughout the year.
Clive Myrie and Laura Kuenssberg will host the BBC's Election 2024 An example of this is where the count for Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer's Holborn and St Pancreas seat would be held, which has been moved from its previous location. We found out about that in 2023 and started to talk about what the IT and connectivity would look like, Williams explains. There are brilliant people who look at the 650 seats and rank the really key ones [to cover]. We absolutely have to be at the leaders' constituencies and there are certain other ones, like Sunderland, which was always the first to declare [rival northeast city Newcastle took over this position in both 2017 and 2019]. That gives you something to talk about while you're waiting for all the other results to come in.
While some constituencies are logistically difficult to cover Williams
Europe Stories
29/12/2025
From crisper Lossless audio and immersive music videos in beta to new Audiobooks+ plans, custom transitions between tracks, and in-app Messages, we keep levelin...
23/12/2025
The year is winding down, the weather outside is frightful, and it's the perfect time to escape into a story that warms the heart. For listeners looking for...
23/12/2025
23 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan and Rakuten Symphony Collaborate to A...
22/12/2025
For a decade, popular German podcast Fest & Flauschig has hosted an annual Chris...
22/12/2025
Monday 22 December 2025
Sky extends PGA TOUR partnership until 2029, as Sky Spo...
22/12/2025
Siobh n McSweeney, Rory McIlroy, Elon Musk, Catherine Connolly, Jim Gavin, Ivan Yates and Traitor Paudie Moloney lead new characters for Callan Kicks the Year 2...
22/12/2025
Winner announced in the picturesque surroundings of Wicklow's Avondale Tower and Treetop Walk
Andrew Trimble wins the show in his first series as coach
Th...
22/12/2025
The 2025 winners have been announced today, Sunday 21 December, for Ireland's largest choral competition Choirs for Christmas hosted by RT lyric fm.
Ove...
21/12/2025
John Shortt named Young Sportsperson of the Year Kerry are the Team of the Year
...
19/12/2025
With Playout Release 2025.4, ToolsOnAir continues to push professional playout w...
19/12/2025
19 Dec 2025
VEON's Mobilink Microfinance Bank Launches Islamic Banking Oper...
19/12/2025
The six-part drama, set in a close-knit Welsh town fractured by an unspeakable c...
19/12/2025
Rohde & Schwarz drives the future of mobility at CES 2026 At the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Rohde & Schwarz will present a powerful lineup o...
19/12/2025
RT is proud to return to the RDS to support the 2026 Stripe Young Scientist & T...
18/12/2025
Canada's largest indoor arena has transformed its live production capabilities with a full ST 2110 infrastructure and Calrec's compact Argo S console. S...
18/12/2025
Long-term agreement includes the SES SCORE platform and hybrid distribution worldwide to deliver more than 5,000 hours of golf tournaments annually featuring th...
18/12/2025
18 Dec 2025
VEON Upgraded to Nasdaq Global Select Market, Enhancing Investor Visibility Dubai, December 18, 2025 - VEON Ltd. (Nasdaq: VEON), a global digital o...
18/12/2025
Thursday 18 December 2025
Sky Sports remains the exclusive home of the Masters ...
18/12/2025
Using the additive process of 3D printing, layer after layer gets printed until an object is as close to the final shape needed as possible. Historically, machi...
18/12/2025
In 2025, RT proudly supported 185 arts and cultural events across the island of Ireland, reflecting significant growth since the scheme was re-launched in 2014...
18/12/2025
RT Sports Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
18/12/2025
RT lyric fm presents a very special Winter Solstice edition of Ambient Orbit, l...
18/12/2025
At 7.45pm on 1st January 1926, the precursor to RT , then 2RN, delivered the fledgling new Irish state's first public radio transmission. From those first c...
18/12/2025
December 18 2025, 05:30 (PST) The Movie Experience SLO Becomes First U.S. Exhib...
17/12/2025
Investigative journalists across the Western Balkans and T rkiye continue to con...
17/12/2025
The right playlist is essential on New Year's Eve, building the energy as you get ready and keeping it high as you count down to midnight. This year, Spotif...
17/12/2025
eds3_5_jq(document).ready(function($) { $(#eds_sliderM519).chameleonSlider_2_1({...
17/12/2025
Wuppertal December 17, 2025
Riedel Builds Global Communication and Commentary ...
17/12/2025
December 17 2025, 17:00 (PST) Dolby and LG Unveil a New Era of Home Audio With ...
17/12/2025
Wednesday 17 December 2025
Heated Rivalry will be coming to Sky and streaming service NOW on 10 JanuaryTurn on cookies to view this content. Go to Privacy opti...
17/12/2025
RT has announced that Kathy Fox has been appointed Commissioning Editor with re...
17/12/2025
With the new season of Dancing with the Stars shimmering in the not-too-distant future this New Year, the celebrity and dancer pairings of the twelve couples ha...
16/12/2025
Hawkins has landed on Spotify, just in time for Stranger Things Season 5, Volume...
16/12/2025
Wherever you are, your favorite music and audio content should go seamlessly with you. That's why Spotify has partnered with NAVER Corp, Korea's leading...
16/12/2025
2025 Wrapped arrived bigger and bolder than ever. This year's experience is designed to be ultra personal and shareable, with new features like Wrapped Part...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON Announces Release Date for Full Year and Fourth Quarter 2025 R...
16/12/2025
16 Dec 2025
VEON's Kyivstar Invests in Renewable Energy in Ukraine with Acq...
16/12/2025
Harmonic's XOS Advanced Media Processor Improves Streaming Video Quality and Boosts Viewer Engagement SAN JOSE, Calif. - Dec. 16, 2025 - Harmonic (NASDAQ: ...
16/12/2025
RT Sport Awards 2025 live on RT One and RT Player at 8:05pm on Saturday 20 December.
On Saturday 20 December live on RT One and RT Player at the earlier t...
16/12/2025
Singer -songwriter Brian Kennedy has been announced as the final celebrity dance...
15/12/2025
Cape Town, November 13, 2025 - SES and International artist and humanitarian, Fo...
15/12/2025
Luxembourg, December 15, 2025 - SES, a leading space solutions company, and Abra Group launched fast and reliable multi-orbit inflight connectivity service on t...
15/12/2025
15 Dec 2025
VEON's Beeline Kazakhstan Delivers First Starlink Direct to Cel...
15/12/2025
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor finds himself the topic of year's cracker jokes
Oasis, David Harbour, Celebrity Traitors and Angela Rayner all feature in this y...
15/12/2025
Comscore Expands Cross-Platform Campaign Measurement to Include Audio and Social New capabilities strengthen cross-platform campaign reporting suite; CCR rebran...
15/12/2025
RT .ie has reached one billion page views this year and is on track to finish 2025 2% ahead of last year. Average time spent on the site is up 3% on 2024, with ...
12/12/2025
Last month, Spotify announced a new collaboration with the ATP Tour, the global governing body of men's professional tennis, aimed at bringing the next gene...
12/12/2025
Friday 12 December 2025
Ted is back! Seth MacFarlane's live-action comedic ...
12/12/2025
Uachtar n na h ireann, Catherine Connolly visited RT Raidi na Gaeltachta's...
The results of UK general elections are always eagerly anticipated and can make for compelling television. Kevin Hilton talks to the BBCs head of media operations, Morwen Williams, about how such an involved broadcast is put together and the technologies being used to get those all important declarations on air
