Every day we transcribe the main UK TV news bulletins and compare them, revealing which stories every channel agreed mattered, and which only one chose to run.
Across all channels right now, these are the topics and stories eating up the most airtime.
Across the last 4 days, Forced Adoption, Russia-Ukraine War and Southport Stabbings emerged as new topics, while coverage of World Cup, Wimbledon and Police Misconduct faded. Channel 5 stood out, giving Halifax 7.0x the airtime share of its peers. Defence, Andy Burnham and Immigration led the agenda overall.
20 broadcasts
FadingPrime Minister Keir Starmer announced an additional 15 billion pounds for defence, funded by cuts to road and energy projects, with a focus on drones and unmanned systems. The plan has drawn criticism and a former defence secretary resigned over the funding, while a 4.7 billion funding gap for the next government was noted.
13 broadcasts
DormantThe UK government plans to make migrants repay accommodation costs, and 83 asylum seekers have been moved into new build homes that have been dubbed 'Migrant Street'.
12 broadcasts
DormantDefending champion Yannick Sinner advanced in his opening match, Serena Williams faced an injury concern, and Dan Evans retired from professional tennis on the first day of Wimbledon.
11 broadcasts
DormantIn his first major speech as Labour leader, Andy Burnham outlined devolution and economic plans, promising council house building and greater regional powers.
Today's coverage as it comes together, and how far the analysis has got.
The most recent finished day's cross-channel verdict — where channels agreed and where they broke apart.
The editorial agenda was dominated by "Defence", "World Cup", and "Donald Trump". Channel 5 showed a distinctive focus, over-indexing on "Halifax" at 7.0x the average airtime share of peers.
Where channels' language diverged most. Quotes shown in context on each topic page.
Zoom out: patterns over every day we've ever analysed.
Channels pulled together when their overall news agendas overlap; pushed apart when they diverge.
Topics that dominated TV news airtime aggregated across all dates.
Comparing the cumulative share of airtime dedicated to each category across all channels.
Historical cosine similarity mapping how closely channels' overall airtime distributions overlap across the entire archive.
| Channel Pair | Channel 5 | BBC One | BBC Two | Channel 4 | GB News | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Channel 5 | 100% | 48% | 34% | 36% | 32% | 47% | 26% |
| BBC One | 48% | 100% | 42% | 57% | 38% | 77% | 64% |
| BBC Two | 34% | 42% | 100% | 54% | 43% | 30% | 44% |
| Channel 4 | 36% | 57% | 54% | 100% | 61% | 42% | 58% |
| GB News | 32% | 38% | 43% | 61% | 100% | 31% | 41% |
| ITV | 47% | 77% | 30% | 42% | 31% | 100% | 42% |
| Sky News | 26% | 64% | 44% | 58% | 41% | 42% | 100% |
Values represent cumulative cosine similarity of overall topic coverage share vectors. A higher percentage reflects closer alignment in long-term news priorities and weighting.
Measures how much each broadcaster's news agenda shifts day-on-day. Broadcasters with higher scores are highly reactive to breaking daily cycles; lower scores represent consistent daily beat profiles.
Broadcaster is highly responsive to the daily news cycle, rapidly shifting resources between categories day-to-day.
Broadcaster balances a consistent core beat agenda with moderate day-to-day shifting to match breaking news patterns.
Broadcaster balances a consistent core beat agenda with moderate day-to-day shifting to match breaking news patterns.
Broadcaster balances a consistent core beat agenda with moderate day-to-day shifting to match breaking news patterns.
Broadcaster balances a consistent core beat agenda with moderate day-to-day shifting to match breaking news patterns.
Broadcaster balances a consistent core beat agenda with moderate day-to-day shifting to match breaking news patterns.
Broadcaster maintains a highly consistent daily topic agenda, keeping emphasis on similar beats day-to-day.