Friday Flashback: End of the tally room
2010 was the last time a federal election was focussed at the National Tally Room.
- Published by David Knox
- on
In 2013 TV networks abandoned a long running election night tradition: the national tally room in Canberra.
That left a 2010 election as the last of its kind.
At the time Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn lamented that the National Tally Room no longer played role in the delivery of election results.
“A number of television broadcasters have traditionally anchored their election night broadcasts from the NTR. I have confirmation that none of the television networks intend to host their 2013 election coverage from the NTR. Notably this includes the ABC.,” he said.
“The NTR would cost around $1.2m to stage again and this is an amount that has become very hard to justify at this or future elections.
“The networks’ decision diminishes the NTR’s perceived role as a focal point of the election, and has caused me to consider carefully its residual purpose.”
Here’s how Greg Jennett explained it all to ABC viewers.
4 Responses
How good were Roy & HG in the NTA with their Channel 7 blimp that flew around behind all the networks’ sets?!
Man what a blast , the good old days ,was that computer running DOS .
I thought that the NTR was a fantastic way to determine the type of seat for the electorate during the federal election and that I was able tp see who was Liberal or Labor or Greens at that time. I think that ABC, Nine did a great job at covering the Federal Election back in the days and that we were able to know the updates for the seats around Australia. With the rise of technology through Smart Phones, iPads in late 2011, we were able to check the results on our phones and on the internet!
I really miss the days of the NTR. It had a real buzz about it no matter which broadcast you watched, the lines blurred as guests, commentators and the public roamed the room. I would love to see it return.