Vote 2005: Election night guide

Updated: 22:00 BST

DS presents a full guide to your election night viewing choices.

BBC
Coverage on the BBC starts at 21:55, five minutes before polls across the country close. Election Night with David Dimbleby, Jeremy Paxman and Peter Snow will air on BBC One through the early hours of Friday morning. In Scotland, Anne MacKenzie, Brian Taylor and Jackie Bird will host coverage; in Wales, Huw Edwards, David Williams and Betsan Powys will be presenting.

Special programmes are also planned for BBC Two and BBC Three; on BBC Two, a Dead Ringers election special will air at 22:00. On BBC Three, MPs' Out-Takes will air at 23:00.

ITV
Election 2005 will start at 22:00, presented by Jonathan Dimbleby and Nick Robinson. The network, in an attempt to beat the BBC in the election night ratings, will be relying on use of virtual reality technologies to engage viewers. "Elvis," an "election visualiser," will display 3D representations of MPs. ITV News chief David Mannion promised that the network's coverage will be "distinctive with credibility," but added that "we are not afraid to have fun."

Five, Sky
Vote 05 coverage will begin on Sky News at 21:00, anchored by Julie Etchingham and Adam Boulton from a new purpose-built studio. From 00:05, Sky's coverage will also be simulcast on analogue terrestrial TV on Five. Sky News Active will be expanding to 16 screens, accessible by pressing the red button on digital satellite.

Kay Burley will travel in the SkyCopter to key locations during the evening, while Martin Stanford will report from a virtual representation of the House of Commons.

CNN International
CNNI plans full coverage through the day and overnight. UK Election 2005 coverage will be anchored from CNN's London studios by Christiane Amanpour and Robin Oakley, with Richard Quest reporting regular updates as constituency results come in. CNN correspondents will be reporting from around the UK offering analysts on how the election result will have international implications. A special edition of International Correspondents will feature British and international journalists discussing how the result could impact UK foreign policy.

In the US
In America, C-SPAN2 will simulcast BBC One from 17:00 - 22:00 ET/22:00 - 03:00 BST. Coverage on cable news starts at 17:00 ET with exit poll results, with CNN simulcasting news coverage from ITV1 for a few minutes and FNC carrying a live report from London. It is expected that all the cable news channels will dip in and out of coverage as the evening progresses; CNN has stationed its senior political analyst in London, and Fox will be able to draw on the resources of Sky News. On terrestrial TV, it is expected that the broadcast networks will cover available results on the main evening news programmes. At 23:00 ET, local news programmes begin airing in the Eastern time zone - that will be 04:00 BST, at which point many constituencies will have returned results and the final result will become clearer.