LONDON - Three weeks after UK Prime Minister Tony Blair called an election for May 5, Britons have used their television remote controllers to vote the political campaigning a big turn off.
TV news shows have seen bored audiences drop off in their hundreds of thousands since Blair announced the poll on April 5, according to the latest statistics from the UK's Broadcasters Audience Research Board on Wednesday.
"The figures show that despite all the efforts of broadcasters to connect with real people during the campaign -- the process is turning off viewers and failing to connect," said Conor Dignam, editor of Broadcast magazine.
"For all their efforts to 'connect' with viewers, broadcasters are experiencing the same problem as politicians -- TV audiences are simply finding the campaign a bore. "
The figures show that 300,000 viewers have deserted the BBC's Six O'Clock News, while 200,000 have switched off BBC's Ten O'Clock News, ITV1's Evening News and its News at 10.30 programmes.
Channel 4's news show maintained its audience share and only BBC2's late night current affairs programme Newsnight saw an increase in viewers.
The BBC's rolling News 24 service also recorded a drop, while its rivals Sky News and the ITV News Channel remained steady.
- REUTERS
Election a big turn-off for British TV viewers
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