Election night is upon us, and cable or satellite subscriptions are strictly optional if you’re looking to watch the results pour in in real time on the big day. For what is being called the first “cord-cutter election,” PBS will be hosting live coverage via their individual streaming networks as well as social platforms like Facebook and YouTube.
PBS NewsHour will kick off its coverage at 8PM ET on television, as well as YouTube, Facebook, and uStream. The evening’s coverage includes panels with names like Obama campaign pollster Cornell Belcher, Scholar Andra Gillespie and former Romney campaign chief strategist Stuart Stevens.
NewsHour’s Lisa Desjardins and Rothenberg & Gonzales Political Report editor Nathan Gonzalez will be providing ballot coverage, with input from presidential historian Michael Beschloss. Jeff Greenfield, William Brangham, and Daniel Bush will also be providing coverage throughout the evening.
PBS didn’t make any headlines for its Election Day ratings last year, but that’s likely because ratings of election night coverage have dropped at stunning rates over the past two elections. The media titan of 2012’s coverage was NBC, with its 8-11 PM broadcast pulling in an average of 12.122 million viewers. With that in mind, it isn’t much of a surprise why the media is gravitating to live coverage, and why live streaming deals with networks like Facebook and YouTube are becoming such a common practice for news channels today.
We’ve rounded up every news network’s coverage plan for this monumental political event, from broadcast to cable, here. There you’ll find all the details on your myriad viewing options.