Sky News chief: 'We bored viewers in 2001 election'

Sky News "bored viewers" with its non-stop coverage of the last general election, channel head Nick Pollard admitted today.

This time round the station will be learning from its mistakes and taking a more "imaginative" approach to covering the election, which is anticipated for May 5.

"In 2001 I don't think we got it right. We did it absolutely wall-to-wall - everything that moved and spoke, we covered. We were very indiscriminate. It was wrong," the Media Guardian quote Pollard as saying at Broadcasting Press Guild lunch.

"It was very fair - my God, was it comprehensive - and it bored the viewers. I remember there was a senior politician speaking in Elgin High Street in the rain, with about three people listening - and we still had a satellite truck there."

He went on to reveal a strategy of "taking it to real people" through its coverage, by telling people what politicians have promised versus what they have actually delivered.

He added: "What is the NHS really like? Not what Tony Blair or Michael Howard say it's like. What are people's real experiences of it? We'd maybe crunch the numbers for a month, look at things like the number of doctors and length of waiting lists. All the broadcasters will be preparing a parcel of ideas and formats, to try and make it a little bit more accessible, rather than just reporting from Elgin High Street."