Pundits and pollies in a race to call it first

Free-to-air and pay-TV are pulling out all the stops in their election coverage.

Sky News' David Speers in the Sky Studio in Parliament House ahead of the 2019 Election Night Coverage. Picture: Sean Davey

Television viewers face a “wall to mega wall” night of election coverage across free-to-air and subscription television on Saturday night for the first time in years as all of the main broadcasters vie for attention and the bragging rights of calling the national vote.

Network 10 will cover the biggest night in Australian politics after skipping the 2016 federal election countdown and joins commercial rivals Nine, Seven and Sky News, plus public broadcasters ABC and SBS with live election coverage.

Chris Walton, managing director of Nunn Media, said the decision by all five networks to run the coverage highlighted the significance of this election.

“This election is being viewed as very important for the future direction of the country, more so than other recent elections,” Mr Walton said,

“Therefore there is wider interest in the outcome.”

Labor’s long-running lead in the polls has tightened in the four weeks of the campaign so far, making for a tight election race on the night.

That also gives the networks a reason to want to hold on to viewers rather than risk them drifting to another station.

“Saturday isn’t a big night for the networks generally so it is probably less of a commercial decision, or rather it is a decision that is lower risk than if the election was on a day earlier in the week,” Mr Walton said.

“Given how viewing patterns have gone, if you are a terrestrial network and you haven’t got live sport to show, then Saturday nights are pretty ordinary. The economics of running election coverage isn’t huge — you have your contracted news/current affairs hosts supplemented by a load of ‘experts’ who will probably get more out of being in the limelight than they will out of any payment for appearance.”

The race for viewers is expected to be fierce, with a string of high-profile journalists and current and former politicians set to take over the small screen for several hours on Saturday night.

How the networks are covering Federal Election night.

Sky News will kick-off its election night program, Australia Decides, with political editor David Speers at the helm in Canberra alongside Sky News hosts Laura Jayes, Kieran Gilbert, Chris Kenny, Andrew Bolt and Paul Murray from the Sky News bureau in Parliament House.

It will also boast a range of high-profile pundits and politicians, including broadcaster Alan Jones, Liberal powerbroker Michael Kroger, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, opposition defence spokesman Richard Marles, host, former prime ministerial chief of staff Peta Credlin, retired Labor senator Stephen Conroy and former Labor minister Graham Richardson.

Sky News chief executive Paul Whittaker said the program would provide “clarity, simplicity and speed of results”.

“We won’t just be relying on the electoral commission results, with our Sky News scrutineers’ intelligence network providing real-time numbers from the polling booths,” Mr Whittaker said.

Media analyst Steve Allen said all networks had a “solid rationale” for coverage.

“Seven & Nine are fighting it out for news and current affairs supremacy and the ABC has arguably the most comprehensive and authoritative coverage because of Anthony Green, so must defend its patch,” Mr Allen said.

As well as Green, ABC’s coverage will consist of Leigh Sales, Annabel Crabb, Andrew Probyn, Laura Tingle, Barrie Cassidy, Michael Rowland, Greg Jennett and Patricia Karvelas broadcasting from a new election set at ABC’s Sydney studios.

“The set will be in the round, allowing a fluid 360 degree experience. Michael Rowland will preside over Augmented Reality Graphics, which will be set up in the ABC foyer, clearly highlighting all the key swing regions,” an ABC spokesman said.

The 2016 federal election was watched by around 1.8 million people on free-to-air TV players ABC, Nine and Seven.

ABC’s coverage was the most popular among viewers, with around 858,000 across five metropolitan cities. Nine and Seven had 606,000 and 318,000 viewers respectively, according to OzTAM figures.

Ten’s election coverage will be hosted by Sandra Sully, Hamish Macdonald and Chris Bath, with insights from political editor Peter van Onselen and The Project’s co-host Waleed Aly and number-crunching by Hugh Riminton alongside pollster James Stewart.

As revealed in Media Diary, Nine’s election coverage will be fronted by Nine’s chief political editor, Chris Uhlmann, with colleagues Chris O’Keefe and Ross Greenwood, supported by a bank of politicians.

Greenwood will be looking through the numbers with the “Election Mega Wall’’ and polls will also run throughout the night on 9news.com.au.

Nine will use its own system, “Decision Desk’’, to calculate the results, which will be broadcast in the “Virtual Tally Room’’.

Seven will host its election coverage from Martin Place in Sydney, with news host Michael Usher joined by Seven’s political editor Mark Riley, and senior political correspondent, Tim Lester, supported by a pool of Labor and Coalition politicians.

SBS will run its own election coverage from the SBS studios from 10.10pm AEST, with Janice Peterson and chief political correspondent Brett Mason.

The pair will cross to reporters in key electorates throughout Australia as counting continues.

The team will be joined by politicians Jenny McAllister, retiring Liberal Craig Laundy, Chris Bowen and former Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett.

“Because it will likely be decided potentially in many tight seats by new Australian votes, SBS has a strong role and presently they get on and handle themselves better with Government,” media analyst Steve Allen said. “Ten are not prepared to stay out of the race, and I guess CBS are mightily interested in news.”