Discuss media coverage for the 2026 South Australian State Election, to be held on Saturday 21 March 2026.
Discuss politics, results, campaign, etc in the State/Territory politics thread
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Interesting to see they picked a date when neither South Australian AFL team is playing. This will ensure main channel coverage on 7.
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It’s the latest date an election must be held, and our elections have always been held at the same time of year (mid-March) since 2006.
Also, last election when there was local AFL at night, it got bumped to 7Mate to allow for election coverage on the main channel.
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SA has fixed terms and dates for elections. Date was known 4 years ago.
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Thanks, I wasn’t aware. In this case it was probably the AFL who scheduled their fixture around the election.
If Crows or Port were to play on that Saturday, 7 Adelaide would only be able to show the game on delay, so it’d be easier to shove it to 7mate anyway.
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ABC’s SA Votes page is up and running
ABC TV’s coverage:
Emma Rebellato and Rory McClaren are joined by Casey Briggs for the latest results and analysis.
Nice to see Emma is being given a shot at the coverage - Rory also did a very good job co-hosting last time so also great to see him get the gig again.
For those who don’t know:
Emma Rebellato is the newsreader on News Breakfast, and was previously the SA weekend news presenter
Rory McLaren is the local ABC Radio mornings presenter, and was previously SA political editor
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was thinking it was interesting they’d use Emma over Jess, but of course Jess is married to the Premier’s media man so maybe not a good look.
Assuming 7 will use Rosanna and Will, with Smitho doing analysis. On FiveAA maybe Stacey Lee will fill Will’s roll.
9 could do well to bring Sarah Abo over to co-host given she was formerly a reporter and presenter here, rather than having Brenton solo.
Will also be interesting to see who the parties will send out as their spin doctors - likely Tom Koutsantonis (Labor Treasurer) will once again pop up on the ABC given he’s done the past two. Obviously they aren’t going to be able to use their usual Liberal rep Vicki Chapman given she has left Parliament.
Can also see Frank Pangallo (Liberal) and Jayne Stintson (Labor) popping up on Seven given their former ties to the network.
Will also be interesting to see what radio coverage ABC do this election - my tip is either Sonya and Jules do a more casual coverage, or they get someone like Nikolai Beilharz to do the coverage.
In this day and age they’d be better to just simulcast the TV coverage.
Pyne will pop up somewhere. Kate Ellis was good on 9 last time but is probably increasingly irrelevant.
Not sure if Frank will get on a panel, given he’s likely to be losing the seat he is running for.
His ego is too big for him to not try and get a gig, regardless of his chances.
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There will be a televised leaders debate tomorrow, hosted by Sky News and The Advertiser. It will air at 12pm, and will be moderated by Sky News chief news anchor Kieran Gilbert. It will be live-streamed on the Sky News and Advertiser websites.
Despite Sky and The Advertiser branding it as the final showdown before the debate, the SA Business Chamber and the SA Press Club are co-hosting another debate, to be held on March 13 at 11:30am - last time, ABC televised the press-club debate, so hopefully they will do the same again.
Saturday, 21 March
South Australia - main channel
5:30pm ABC News: SA Votes
On the day of the South Australian Election, the day’s top stories and the latest from ABC News ahead of the ABC’s SA Votes coverage.
6:00pm SA Votes: Election Night Live
As polls close in the South Australian election, Emma Rebellato and Rory McClaren are joined by Chief Election Analyst Casey Briggs to bring you reliable and accurate coverage of the vote count as results come in.
7:30pm SA Votes: Election Results Live
South Australians go to polls to decide between Labor Premier Peter Malinauskas and Liberal Opposition Leader Ashton Hurn. Emma Rebellato and Rory McClaren are joined by Casey Briggs for the latest results and analysis.
9:00pm SA Votes: The People’s Verdict
When the votes have come in and the results become clearer, we hear from the party leaders and candidates in the SA State Election. Presented by Emma Rebellato and Rory McClaren, joined by Casey Briggs.
ABC News - AEDT
6:00pm ABC News: SA Votes
6:30pm SA Votes: Election Night Live
8:00pm SA Votes: Election Results Live
9:30pm SA Votes: The People’s Verdict
11:00pm ABC Late News Weekend
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InDaily has now confirmed that the ABC will broadcast the debate at 12:30pm local time on TV and Radio - it will be moderated by ABC Radio mornings presenter (and SA Press Club president) Rory McLaren
Will actually be March 18 - got dates mixed up my bad.
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Seven has announced in tonight’s 6pm news (not that it was ever in doubt) that it will have rolling coverage on election night.
Will be a pretty quick election night if you believe the hype out of SA.
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