Red Bee Media’s Access Team provided the most accessible UK General Election for the UK viewers 

The UK General Election on 4th July 2024 was the culmination of a six-week campaign which saw a new government installed at Westminster by the British electorate. 

It was also the culmination of an incredibly busy period for Red Bee’s Access Services team. Our experts moved heaven and earth to ensure that the Election Campaign and Election Night coverage was the most accessible ever for UK viewers. 

We sat down with Alan McGuffog, Head of Service Delivery for the Access Services team, to discuss the challenges, achievements and key takeaways from the last weeks on the campaign trail. 

Advance Planning 

Q: When you know an election is pending, as with this one, do you start planning before the announcement or are you reacting to the news like everyone else? 

We knew that an election had to happen by January 2025 but we thought, like most people, that it would probably take place in the autumn. We hadn’t made specific plans before the announcement, but we had started to look back at our planning documents from the 2019 election, and many previous elections in anticipation. This was to remind ourselves about the broad shape of the coverage provided by broadcasters last time around. 

Q: Do things kick into a higher gear in terms of planning once the date is announced? 

Absolutely! From the moment a rain-soaked Rishi Sunak announced the date, on 22nd May, it was full steam ahead in the Access Services planning team. We were in constant communication with broadcasters as they put together their plans for debates, interviews and Election Night itself, along with the various accessibility requirements. There were extended news bulletins, which all needed to be subtitled, and numerous other changes to the planned TV schedules. And, following the announcement of the date, we reviewed and revised our staffing plans to make sure that we were able to provide live subtitling and signing on the key landmark programmes.

Q: This election coverage is on top of the usual workload for the teams. How much of a challenge was a July election date in 2024 for Red Bee Media?

Our subtitling team had already planned well ahead for a busy summer of sport, with Euro 2024, Wimbledon, Formula 1, the Tour de France and the Olympics and Paralympics all in the schedules. We have a large team of subtitlers, including some freelancers, so we were able to accommodate the election coverage thanks to some careful replanning. We could balance the demands of election coverage in our signing team despite two other major live projects we were already working on in June – Glastonbury and the FA Disability Cup Finals. 

Post-Announcement

Q: Moving on to the campaign itself, what Access Services did you provide? 

We subtitled all of the many Party Election Broadcasts during the campaign. We provided live subtitling on the leader Interviews and the various debates, as well as on the rolling news and news bulletins. In addition, our signing team made the leader interviews and the debates accessible in British Sign Language.  

Q: Speaking of the live debates, how did you approach such important, high-profile events?  

The live debates were among the key events of the campaign and attracted a lot of media attention before, during and after they were broadcast. Our role in Access Services team was to make these broadcasts as accessible as possible by providing live subtitling and live signing. This enabled deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers to have the same access to information as hearing viewers, allowing them to engage in the national conversation and to make informed decisions. 

Q: Were there any specific challenges thrown up by the different debate formats? 

We worked on a total of six different debates for two broadcasters, with between two and seven party leaders or representatives in each. Unlike in the recent US Presidential Debate, mics were open at all times, so participants were inevitably talking over each other. The role of our BSL interpreters and live subtitlers is to make sense of what’s being said but without editorialising. When the debate gets heated, that can be quite a challenge!

Q: Was there any viewer feedback?

Yes, we were very pleased to receive feedback from a number of deaf viewers who were delighted in particular by the live signing, which we were providing for the first time during this election.  

Election Night

Q: When do you get confirmation of the timings for Election Night?

We received provisional on-air times and durations for Election Night roughly a month in advance, with confirmed on-air times and durations about two weeks in advance, which is when viewers would have also seen them in their TV listings.

Q: What sort of preparation are the teams doing in the build-up to the big day?

Liaising with broadcasters to get hold of programme running orders and the names of studio guests. Making sure that we have prepared the names of all the candidates in each of the 650 constituencies into our live subtitling software and making them available to our deaf and hearing interpreters. Checking and double-checking the schedules for each channel and service and making contingency plans for overruns and unforeseen circumstances. Checking that everything is set up correctly in our live subtitling system and in our signing studios. And making sure that our tech support and duty management teams have all the tools they need to enable them to support our on-air teams on the night.

Q: The Election Night coverage dominates the PSB schedules in the UK. As a managed services provider, how does Red Bee Media cover concurrent broadcasts across multiple customers?

The Access Services team is a large and flexible global team, and every day we provide live subtitling on numerous simultaneous live programmes, including network, regional and rolling news services. On Election Night, as with other major national events, we work to deliver whatever each broadcaster requires of us. The size and flexibility of our team allow us to scale up to meet the requirements of multiple customers, even if they have quite different requirements.

Q: Presumably, there must be lots of changes to broadcasters’ plans during these epic live events. How do you coordinate this in a multi-client environment?

Once the Exit Poll is announced at 10 pm, there is a real sense of excitement and anticipation as broadcasters, viewers and the Access Services team await the announcement of the first seats. Although we have a rough idea of when some of the key seats might be declared, there are always surprises – as broadcasters look to give viewers access to “Portillo Moments”. There were quite a few in this election and that can lead to the planned running order changing, but our subtitlers and signers are very experienced at coping with that. 

Q: How stressful is this for you and your teams?

Working on a General Election is one of the most exciting and rewarding experiences. In Access Services, we had a team of more than 100 people involved, whether it be subtitlers, interpreters, our planning team, tech support, duty managers and others. While there can be some stressful moments, our overall sense now it is all over is one of pride in what we have delivered for broadcasters and, most importantly, the satisfaction of having given viewers who rely on subtitles and signing the opportunity to be able to participate to the fullest extent in this landmark event.