Election results - BBC and Sky
Karly
Posts: 10,468 Forum Member
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I'm probably sounding like an idiot for asking this - and I'm not even sure I'm asking in the right place - but could anyone explain to me why when you look at the election results on BBC and then turn over to Sky the numbers are totally different? 
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you do technically have a choice which Political party will have the appearance of power, but as we all know it is big business that runs the show and dictates policy, not Dave, Nick or Ed
How different? I've not seen sky coverage but the BBC are switching between four different figures, 'total number of seats' 'seat gain/loss' 'total number of councils' and 'council gain/loss'. So is it possible that you might not be comparing like for like figures? Alternatively, the channels might be updating their figures at a different pace as the results come in but that should only see a couple of numbers difference really.
You cant expect parties to win councils from a standing start. Also in many cases only a third of the council was up for election anyway.
BBC: Lab 925 Con: 729 LD 237 UKIP 94
SKY: Lab 1763 Con 1304 LD 430 UKIP 107
Councils control numbers are also vastly different yet number of declared results is pretty much the same on each channel. There is some obvious difference here that I'm not getting?
Might be that Sky are using total figures? That is, some councils are only electing 1/3 of their members, so whilst BBC are only running totals for the seats up for election Sky are counting the seats not up for election too?
And sky using the counts before announcement
You know the answer because Steve Williams specifically answered your post on the exact same point on another thread
So why ask again?
From watching the BBC coverage there was just this minute a conversation between David Dimbleby and Emily Maitlis, which pretty much confirmed this was the case. Although they didn't specifically mention Sky, they did use the term "another broadcaster" when explaining how the numbers etc.
I know that in the past when ITV covered elections and by-elections, they tended to use predictions whilst the BBC waited until a result was officially announced before adding to the totals.
And to listen to the hype from some of the other parties you might believe that UKIP had not even won any seats whilst those other parties achieved all their targets.
I just posted that ITV did tricks like that. I have wondered about the legality of misusing privileged access to the count, I am sure there must be conditions on the use of that access. Sounds as if Sky News might be doing the same.
...some of which were wrong and had to be sheepishly corrected on air.
You are missing the point it isn't that they have won any councils they have taken a large share of the vote for example in a lot of places they were just a few votes behind Labour/Tory.
To go from nothing to this is an amazing feat whatever you think of them, the fact that the way British politics works effectively means only two parties can ever win an election is not UKIP's fault BUT one thing to note with a four party system it is unlikely any party will get a majority and the minor parties may come into play.
In a lot of the councils they were only voting in certain area's so in Rotherham UKIP gained 10 councils whereas Labour lost 8, but because a large porportion of the town wasn't taking part it mean Labour couldn't be toppled but to take 10 councils was a major event.
Although there were some blunders by Dimbledy & Co it made it more entertaining.