UK 2015 Election Coverage - Who are the Main TV Players?

Election 2015 is hotting up. TV debate fever is rising, and the general consensus is that the battle between the leading parties is set to be one of the closest and most exciting in political history.

As the Speakers Corner team debates the two-kitchen question and whether Farage’s sound-bite talents may garner UKIP too many votes, our clients are increasingly requesting information on facilitators , after dinner speakers  and awards hosts , who will become the most prominent and ever-present faces on our TV screens over the next few weeks, for analysis and comment on voting trends, and the party and people who will be ruling the country from May 8th and onwards for the next four years.

Some of the most prominent presenters on the BBC will include David Dimbleby and Nick Robinson, with Fergus Walsh covering health; Robert Peston and Linda Yueh following the election in the business world, and Newsnight hosts Evan Davis; Kirsty Wark; Emily Maitlis and Laura Kuenssberg presenting from the studio on the entire spectrum of voting issues.

TV debates appear to be the cornerstone of this election – with social media – a new player in politics – running a close second. #GE2015  is trending on Twitter – and will undoubtedly continue to do so, and to grow in the next few weeks. And so it follows, that broadcast journalists who wish to see themselves on the political frontline, have to be regular, passionate and popular Tweeters. No problem for the three lead ITN News players - Tom Bradby (41.7K followers), Julie Etchingham (28.3K followers) and Alastair Stewart (19.1K followers).

Current affairs fans may have shed a tear when Jeremy Paxman departed the Newsnight studio after a quarter of a century with the landmark BBC show, but they will be thrilled that he has taken the reigns at Channel 4 News for the General Election – and even more delighted with his ‘rousing and entertaining’ (the Guardian) no-nonsense form so far – was he trying to make Ed Miliband cry in the March debate??

Alongside him will be the familiar faces of Jon Snow, Krishnan Guru Murthy, Cathy Newman and Matt Frei, with on-location reports from Chief Correspondent Alex Thomson; Paul Mason on economic issues and Simon Israel on Home Affairs concerns, amongst others.

Sky News Political Correspondents Faisal Islam and Joey Jones, with Mark White on the Home Affairs front, will take up the story for the channel.

With the proliferation of social media, and TV and radio debates, we need the help of these experts to decipher most of the content that we hear, read and see. And that’s the appeal of these broadcasters  – they clarify big issues - and of course, without them we would never have known that it was the ‘spare’ kitchen.

Picture courtesy of Nayu Kim on Flickr: Citytv monitor roomCitytv &OMNI Television - Rogers Studios - Interior Taken on May 27, 2012