Ruling party landslide makes for boring television

Published on February 7, 2005

As TV stations competed fiercely to get election results and live interviews yesterday, viewers were left bored due to a lack of close contests.

Channels 5, 9, 11 and the Nation Channel cancelled all their normal programming to cover the election, while channels 3, 7 and iTV screened cartoons and soap operas after initially concentrating on the election in the morning.

The election coverage hotted up after 3pm, when voting ended.

Most channels covered the exit polls and aired live interviews during the counting of votes.

But unlike previous general elections and the recent Bangkok-governor poll, the thrill for viewers following the live vote count ended quickly, when the Suan Dusit exit poll showed that the Thai Rak Thai Party was likely to win almost 400 seats.

The excitement level further nose-dived at 5pm, when Democrat Party leader Banyat Bantadtan accepted defeat – even though a single vote was not yet officially counted.

Academics said the coverage on channels 9 and 11 was outstanding, because both channels presented detailed information, with experts in different fields analysing the election from early morning.

Although Channel 5 cancelled its normal programmes in favour of all-day election coverage, academics said its broadcast lacked recognised experts analysing results.

While iTV’s tsunami coverage was outstanding, its stop-start election broadcast failed to have the same impact, they said.

Channels 3 and 7’s focus on entertainment meant that viewers did not have a consistent flow of election news.

The foreign media also reported on the election, with most focusing on how many MP seats Thai Rak Thai would get.

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