AIBU to commend channel four for shutting down E4 during most of Polling day..

[Lardylassnomore]

N an effort to get youn people to vote?

I commend them on their action!

[Notso]

I can manage to vote and watch crappy TV.

[RedToothBrush]

How will I cope without Hollyoaks first look?

Waaaahhhhhhh!

Oh well I'm too old for E4 anyway.

I do think its a good publicity stunt and isn't patronising.

[RedToothBrush]

Afterall, all of you lot are talking about it!!!

[TheMustard]

I suppose it's not so much about remembering to vote, or because they really would rather watch reruns instead, but rather to make an impression of how important voting is to first-time voters?

I brought the initiative to my sixth-formers' attention yesterday. They were largely unimpressed, and most of them don't watch e4 apparently. Maybe if snapchat went down on polling day instead?

[BackforGood]

How absolutely ridiculous and insulting.
If it really were that somebody would only vote because E4 wasn't showing any programmes, I'm not sure that person should be trusted with a vote.

Apart from anything else all those of us with postal votes will have voted long before then anyway.

[GottaFeeling]

Nah, there must be some other reason they need/want to close down for a day and someone came up with this - which was clever.

[HelenaDove]

YY Grunt DH is 65 and loves the channel for the American comedies Im 41 and can take it or leave it. I dont mind 2 Broke Girls but i think the misogyny in How I Met Your Mother is fucking horrible.

[Mrsjayy]

Its a bit gimmicky and tbh not much on big bang theroy and repeats of CDWM meh

[PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange]

With the vast amount of ways to watch TV I doubt it will make a difference.

I Am 29 and I always vote, have done since I turned 18.

[Lazarusbal]

Didn't realise E4 was aimed at young people. Honestly thought it was for those of us who kept forgetting our own names so wouldn't notice that it was constant repeats.

[SoupDragon]

What a bloody stupid and insulting thing to do.

[Lazarusbal]

And what soup says

[SoupDragon]

Will they put up a card that says "switch off the TV and go vote, you feckless youth"?

[avocadotoast]

Can they just switch it off and leave it off? So that I never again have to acknowledge the existence of The Big Bang Theory?

That'd do for me

[Gruntfuttock]

avocadotoast kindly consider yourself frowned at!

[Mrsjayy]

They should break the internet the yoof will be so bored they would vote

[Amummyatlast]

How dare they! Thursday night is the highlight of my TV week: TBBT and B99.

[HelenaDove]

A mummy they are only switching it off until 7pm apparently.

[DinosaursRoar]

Soup - apparently they will have some bloke telling everyone to go and vote now and then...

OK, in itself, it's not going to change voting apathy, but it is getting attention in the press, they are advertising the fact they going off air in advance, all of this will remind people to vote, and younger people are the ones who don't get out and vote, any way to reach them and remind them to vote is worth doing.

I've seen so much more stuff about the difference the 'non-voters' can make this time round, I don't remember there being this much push to get the electorate out in previous General Elections (am in my late 30s), it does seem to be coming from the Scottish referendum where there was general surprise about the percentage who voted. Getting the electorate out, however they vote, is important for democracy.

(I've also posted on a couple of threads where posters have said "there's no point me voting, it's a safe seat" that when you look at those seats, if all the "didn't bother to vote" people had got out and voted for the second place candidate - or sometimes the third - they would have won.)

[Amummyatlast]

Thank goodness.

[BoneyBackJefferson]

They could always

[Threesoundslikealot]

It's an advertising stunt. Just read the press release - it's an opportunity to talk about the popularity of the channel with a certain demographic and give the impression that it's soooo brilliant it stops people going out. I'm willing to bet that the lower daytime viewing figures for one day (which will be pretty tiny to start with) more than balance out the value of getting talked about like this. After all, they aren't actually risking the figures for prime time. If they were serious they'd shut down till 10pm when the polls close, but they won't, because people are actually watching by then.

Don't forget, they've announced this after the deadline for voter registration, so suggesting that young people motivated enough to register will be too distracted by TBBT reruns to go and vote is pretty patronising.

[AuntieStella]

Polling Day update.

Right now, E4 has suspended normal programming.

They're showing that bloke. Off until 7pm.

[GlacindaTheTroll]

Is that really him sitting there, or is it on a loop?

This could become the 'must watch' election broadcast.

He's just announced a wee-wee break (using that term); otherwise he just sits, he fidgets.

[GlacindaTheTroll]

It's disco music and a panda now dancing in wotsisname's room.

This could be weirdly compulsive.

Oh, panda just gone, he's sweeping the floor.

What is his name? It was in the programme trailer, but simply cannot remember.