Ukip and the Liberal Democrats will continue to get at least two party election broadcasts on commercial TV ahead of May’s elections – but the Greens will get only one.
Ofcom said on Friday that the Conservatives, Labour, the Lib Dems and Ukip qualify for status as “larger parties” in England and Wales, guaranteeing each at least two broadcasts.
The Green party had also asked Ofcom to be included on the list but the media regulator declined, saying it achieved lower levels of support than the other parties in last year’s general election and the English local elections last year.
The Greens also failed in a bid to qualify ahead of last year’s general election.
However, the Greens do qualify for larger party status for the purposes of the London assembly and the London mayoral elections, meaning Natalie Bennett’s party will have a minimum of two broadcasts on ITV London and Evgeny Lebedev’s local TV channel, London Live.
The Lib Dems remain in the top tier despite the party’s slump in popularity in last year’s general election.
The larger parties in Wales also include Plaid Cymru and in Scotland (where Ukip does not qualify) the Scottish National party.
The 5 May elections include English local and mayoral elections, the National Assembly for Wales elections, Scottish parliamentary elections and Northern Ireland assembly elections.
Ofcom said it reviewed “larger party” status on a regular basis, taking into account a range of evidence including changes in the electoral landscape across a range of elections. Greater weight is placed on previous electoral performance rather than opinion poll data.
The ruling covers party election broadcasts on ITV, ITV Cymru Wales, STV, UTV and relevant local TV providers.
Broadcasters are free to offer additional party election broadcasts beyond the minimum required by Ofcom. Political parties contesting at least a sixth of the seats in an election qualify for one election broadcast.
