ABSTRACT
Broadcast media always eager to break the news as they happen because nothing is as stale as yesterday reports and now in the era of advanced technology where social media (facebook, twitter, instagram, youtube, blogs etc) are competing with broadcast media, there is need for more effective and speedy delivery of information and one of the tools is the use of outside broadcast for live transmission. The study examine the role of outside broadcasting van (Ob-Van) on the television coverage of live political event using Nigeria Television Authority (NTA) and African Independent Television (AIT) as case study. It is observed that outside transmission of political events have made most of the events very popular and carry millions of Nigerians along. Survey research method was adopted in which 100 copies of questionnaires were administered and 90 were retrieved. Simple random sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents. Frequency and percentage method of data analysis was used. Findings show that outside broadcasting transmission bring the event to the people as it is happening, it reduced the amount of information the gatekeepers can keep. It is recommended that media planners and top media management team should try not to abuse the OB-Van in favour political gladiators and training should be organized for staff regularly on how to discharge their duties during outside transmission.
